“Rough around the edges”: Trump excuses Giuliani’s absurd behavior in defensive tweet

Donald Trump’s vacillation towards his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani is getting perplexing.

Yesterday, it looked like the president was getting ready to throw his lawyer — who has been revealed to be deeply enmeshed in the Ukraine foreign election interference scandal through his efforts to dig up dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden — under the bus, going so far as to inexplicably comment that he didn’t know whether the former New York City Mayor was still part of his legal team.

This morning a combative Trump reversed course from his seeming attempt to distance himself from Giuliani  — who is reported to be under investigation by federal prosecutors in the office he used to lead in the Southern District of New York for violating foreign lobbying regulations  — and mounted a full-throated defense of his barrister.

In a not so subtle mark of paranoia, Trump attributes the attacks on the hysterical talking head he sends to rant on his behalf on cable news programs to the mysterious unknown “they.” The president notes the former federal prosecutor and mayor’s reputation as being tough on crime — a reputation that apparently doesn’t extend to the white-collar variety of criminality — while denigrating the position of former New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia who is widely acknowledged by New Yorkers to have been the city’s best mayor.

Even the president finds it impossible to ignore the raving lunatic behavior that Giuliani has exhibited in his mendacious interviews recently, sugar-coating his lawyer’s behavior with a description that minimizes the truly astonishingly bizarre performances into a mere lack of polish. His palsy-walsy description of his attorney as a great guy  — if you only knew the real Rudy! — is not much of a defense considering the source of the character witness.

The assertion that Giuliani is a wonderful lawyer seems to ignore the many times that his attorney has deepened the president’s legal predicaments, including by revealing previously unknown and incriminating details of Trump’s involvement in the payoffs to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

 

Trump’s claims of a “Witch Hunt” — now extending to include his lawyer — ring even more hollow as the details of the Ukraine scandal become increasingly clear, and Giuliani’s foreign-born associates are indicted on charges of felony campaign finance violations.

Trump can make all the “Deep State” conspiracy theories he wants. Fewer and fewer Americans are buying his lies.

It is the behavior of himself, his lawyer, and the rest of his administration that is truly shameful.

Follow Vinnie Longobardo on Twitter.

Vinnie Longobardo

is the Managing Editor of Washington Press and a 35-year veteran of the TV, mobile, & internet industries, specializing in start-ups and the international media business. His passions are politics, music, and art.