CNN’s Toobin Goes Off on Giuliani’s Ukraine Travel: ‘Why Is He There?! What Is He Doing?!’

Rudy Giuliani’s new comments about Ukraine set off a whirlwind of controversy today. The president’s lawyer — who was recently in Ukraine — said to the New Yorker, “I believed that I needed Yovanovitch out of the way,” he said. “She was going to make the investigations difficult for everybody.”

On CNN tonight, Susan Hennessey said, “If this administration actually cared about corruption or rooting out corruption in Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch is someone they would want on their team… The fact Guiliani identified that he needed to get her out of the way is a pretty strong indication where he was not looking to root out corruption but actually engage in corrupt acts himself.”

She added this only adds to the value of hearing Giuliani’s testimony.

Jeffrey Toobin was just bewildered by his actions:

“You have to ask yourself, who is Rudy Giuliani? Why is he there?! What is he doing?! The idea he’s working as a criminal defense attorney is just absurd. He is running American foreign policy. He is trying to get the American ambassador out of the way. Think about that as a concept for a private citizen. And he succeeded! It is just an extraordinary thing. This is what Democrats mean when they say the facts of the case are undisputed. Even the president’s lawyer is admitting the facts of the case.”

Michael Gerhardt, who testified in the impeachment hearings, said, “This kind of admission cuts against the defense you’re likely to see in the Senate… that he did nothing wrong, that this is all a witch hunt. But when you hear something like that, as Jeffrey just said, it’s hard to deny it and ignore it.”

Toobin wryly remarked Gerhardt is “so adorable” because “he thinks the facts will actually matter at the trial.”

You can watch above, via CNN.