GIULIANI: I never said there was no collusion between the campaign or between people in the campaign -- CUOMO: Yes, you have. GIULIANI: I have no idea -- I have not. I said the president of the United States. There is not a single bit of evidence the president of the United States committed the only crime you could commit here -- conspired with the Russians to hack the DNC. CUOMO: First of all, crime is not the bar of accountability for a president. It’s about what you knew -- GIULIANI: Well, he didn’t collude with Russia either! CUOMO: -- what was right, and what was wrong, and what did you deceive about? Those are going to be major considerations. GIULIANI: The president did not collude with the Russians. (CROSSTALK) CUOMO: He said nobody had any contact, tons of people had contact. Nobody colluded, the guy running his campaign -- GIULIANI: He didn’t say nobody -- CUOMO: -- was working on an issue at the same time as the convention. GIULIANI: He said he didn’t. He didn’t say nobody. How would you know that nobody in your campaign -- CUOMO: He actually did say that, Rudy. He said, nobody, and then he said, as far as I know. (CROSSTALK) GIULIANI: Well, as far as he knows, it’s true.<doc-sep>“I never said there was no collusion between the campaign or between people in the campaign,” he told CNN. He added: “I said the president of the United States. There is not a single bit of evidence the president of the United States committed the only crime you could commit here, conspired with the Russians to hack” the Democratic National Committee. [ Trump allies have repeatedly shifted their defense as evidence of contacts with Russians grew.] Mr. Giuliani’s backpedaling was the latest in a series of conflicting comments he has made about the investigation by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III. The evolution of his statements have suggested shifts in the president’s defense strategy, often following developments in the investigations. On Tuesday, prosecutors for the special counsel filed a 200-page, mostly redacted court document related to the case against Mr. Trump’s onetime campaign chairman, Paul Manafort. Among the little information that was not blacked out were details about his relationship with a Russian whom prosecutors have said has ties to Russian intelligence. The special counsel’s document was in response to a recent filing by Mr. Manafort’s legal team, which inadvertently disclosed that Mr. Manafort had provided his Russian associate with American polling data — details that offer the clearest example yet that the Trump campaign may have tried to coordinate with Russia before the 2016 election. Mr. Giuliani has previously denied that there was coordination by Trump campaign aides. “When I say the Trump campaign, I mean the upper levels of the Trump campaign,” Mr. Giuliani said during a July interview with Fox News. “I have no reason to believe anybody else did. The only ones I checked with obviously are the top four or five people.”<doc-sep>Rudy Giuliani's Wednesday night bombshell left the world with a lot to take in. On CNN's Cuomo Prime Time, the former New York City mayor and current member of Trump's legal team falsely declared he "never said there was no collusion between the campaign or between people in the campaign." He only "said the president" himself never colluded, Giuliani claimed to host Chris Cuomo. The next morning on CNN's New Day, Joe Lockhart, who was former President Bill Clinton's press secretary, declared this just another example of Giuliani's "number one job:" "to confuse people." This could mean he is "condition[ing] the ground" because "something bad is coming," Lockhart said. “Rudy Giuliani’s number one job is to confuse people,” @joelockhart on President Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani saying the President didn't collude with Russia but can't say if campaign aides did. https://t.co/v1DBXgfqs9 pic.twitter.com/aTiP7juPwV — New Day (@NewDay) January 17, 2019 But on MSNBC, Morning Joe's Joe Scarborough took it a step further. Wednesday night's revelation all adds up to one thing: "Rudy Giuliani just told America and the world that Donald Trump's campaign colluded with Russia, full stop," Scarborough said. Meanwhile on Fox & Friends First, the ordeal just got a few seconds of attention, during which Giuliani's retort was characterized as him "firing back at CNN over claims he said the Trump campaign never colluded with Russians." What Fox & Friends First calls "claims" are easily viewable in a slew of video clips and tweets.<doc-sep>USA TODAY Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump's attorney, said in an interview on CNN Wednesday there might have been "collusion" between members of the Trumpcampaign and Russia — but the president wasn't involved. On Thursday, Giuliani backtracked. We should listen to Giuliani By David Eckels Wade Rudy Giuliani's interviews should come with complimentary fact-checking the way bad takeout should come with free antacids. But Wednesday night's CNN appearance contained a whopper even by Giuliani's standards: Amid his often reprised and just as often rebutted slander of the Mueller investigation’s "ethics," Giuliani claimed that he "never said there was no collusion between the (Trump) campaign" and Russia. A very different New Yorker, former Sen. Daniel Moynihan, said that "everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." Facts aren't kind to Giuliani. Among President Donald Trump, Giuliani and the White House, there have been 146 denials of collusion, often emphatic: In 2017, Trump simply said, "There is no collusion," and in July 2018 he repeated, "There was no collusion." Wednesday night marked the 11th time the Trump team had to chip away at the president's iron-clad denials, leaving Trump stuck in the tuba section of a soft parade of spin, slowly unraveling the truth. Talker:Son of sexually assaulted comatose woman is the second victim Sign-up for Today's Talker newsletter here It's a long way from Hope Hicks saying there had never been communication with "any foreign entity," to Donald Trump Jr. saying he had never planned on meeting with Russians to the revelations of the very much planned, now infamous Trump Tower meeting organized to gather political dirt from Russian operatives, and now this: The president's lawyer all but admitting there was collusion, just not by the president. Special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation has netted eight guilty pleas — including Trump's campaign chairman, personal lawyer and national security adviser. The investigation recently revealed that the president's campaign chairman worked with the Kremlin by arming a Russian military intelligence operative with the campaign's private polling data, which could've been weaponized to target American voters. Now, the president’s most vociferous defender is trying to separate Trump from his closest aides and advisers, perhaps even his family. It didn't work for President Richard Nixon. It's as dangerous as it would be desperate. Michael Kinsley argued in 1988 that "a gaffe is when a politician tells the truth." For all of Giuliani's prevarication, give him credit: Wednesday night, he committed just such a gaffe. When asked whether the Mueller report should be made public, Giuliani responded, "I agree." After attorney general nominee William Barr signaled this week that he might withhold Mueller's report from Congress and the American people, and with so much Americans deserve to know, this might be the one time I can say with confidence: We should listen to Rudy Giuliani. David Eckels Wade, a Democratic strategist and former chief of staff to Secretary of State John Kerry, is director of Law Works and an advisory board member of Protect the Investigation. Follow him on Twitter: @davideckelswade. What others are saying Nash Riggins, The (London) Independent: "(Rudy Giuliani) literally, 100 percent did say there was no collusion. We all heard it. Fast forward a few months, and the guy is now accusing an entirely different news network of 'falsely reporting' his exact words. Not only that, Giuliani is now claiming that his boss had never said there was no collusion. But we know that’s false. Even Pinocchio wouldn’t bother lying about that one. ... This guy is the picture-perfect personification of America’s obsessive love affair with misinformation and 'alternative facts,' and he's one tiny part of the reason our society is slowly regressing into a motionless hive of ham-fisted halfwits." Rudy Giuliani, CNN on Wednesday: "I never said there was no collusion between the (Trump) campaign (and Russia). Or between people in the campaign. I have no idea. (If) the collusion happened, it happened a long time ago." Rudy Giuliani,statement on Thursday: "I represent only President Trump not the Trump campaign. There was no collusion by President Trump in any way, shape or form. Likewise, I have no knowledge of any collusion by any of the thousands of people who worked on the campaign. The only knowledge I have in this regard is the collusion of the Clinton campaign with Russia which has so far been ignored." Tom Toles, The Washington Post: "Now there is so much evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia that even his attorney, former America’s Mayor Rudy Giuliani, is walking it back. Or rather dragging its badly wounded body off the legal battlefield. Trump might have thought this far ahead, if he thought ahead. But he didn’t even care if his precious 'no collusion' defense held up over time. It was perfect for the moment he said it, which is perfect enough for Trump." What our readers are saying My god, for his age, that man can tap dance and backpedal with the best of them. You have to wonder if being a groveling, lying sycophant is the way Rudy Giuliani envisioned his professional and public life ending. Pretty pathetic. — David Hoeltje It's hysterical how quickly President Donald Trump and Giuliani seem to forget that video recordings are a thing that exist. "I never said that," one of them will say, only to be shown a dozen clips of them saying just that. — William Travis There was no collusion. Well, maybe there was collusion, but 45 didn't know. Well, maybe 45 knew, but he didn't order it. Well, maybe he ordered it, but he didn't participate. Well, maybe he participated, but he was just opening up a diplomatic dialogue. Well, maybe he wasn't opening up a dialogue, but it isn't a crime to talk to people. ... How far can they go? — Jerry Vandiver Of course Trump's campaign would team up with just about anyone to defeat Hillary Clinton. Clinton would have done the same, and probably did. All of this investigation into Russian collusion is a huge waste of time and resources. — Jim Malefyt<doc-sep>
Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal attorney, said he doesn’t deny that the Trump campaign may have colluded with Russians in the 2016 election — only that Donald Trump himself did not. “ ‘I never said there was no collusion between the campaign, or people in the campaign.’ ” Speaking on CNN on Wednesday night, Giuliani claimed he has only said Trump himself was not involved in collusion. “There is not a single bit of evidence the President of the United States committed the only crime you can commit here, conspiring with the Russians to hack the DNC,” he said. Giuliani also said Trump has never denied there was no collusion, just that he himself had not colluded. Trump has repeatedly and vociferously said there was “no collusion” and that the Mueller investigation into collusion was a “witch hunt.” “[Trump] didn’t say ‘nobody,’ he said he didn’t,” Giuliani said. “How would you know nobody in your campaign...” before he was cut off. Giuliani has, in fact, denied there was any collusion by the Trump campaign on numerous occasions, including telling Fox News’ Laura Ingraham last May that the Trump campaign didn’t use information obtained from Russia thus proving there was no collusion. “If there was collusion with the Russians, they would have used it,” he said at the time. That same month, he told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that “Russian collusion is total fake news.” The Mueller probe has made a number of connections between members of Trump’s campaign and Russians. Later in Wednesday’s interview, Giuliani appeared to backtrack, saying that if “the collusion happened, it happened a long time ago. . . . It’s not provable because it never happened. … I’m telling you there’s no chance it happened.” In a CNN interview in July, Giuliani questioned even whether collusion is criminal. “I don’t even know if that’s a crime, colluding about Russians,” he said.