CNN's Jake Tapper took Trump surrogate Rudy Giuliani to task for pretending what we heard from their nominee was an apology for his offensive remarks about sexual assault. The Trump campaign was really scraping the bottom of the barrel this weekend when they sent out serial adulterer Giuliani as the one to defend Trump following the release of the recordings from 2005 where he basically said it was alright to grope women because he's rich and entitled to treat them like chattle.
Sadly Tapper allowed a whole lot of other lies about the Clintons and the Clinton Foundation go unchallenged.
Rough transcript of the exchange above:
TAPPER: So i've got to start obviously with this explosive audio tape of donald trump that came out on friday. This tape, which was recorded in 2005 on it we hear Donald Trump behaving in it's fair to say vile and disgusting way. It's not just the word he uses, he's essentially voicing a casual attitude toward sexual assault. What was your response when you first heard it?
GIULIANI: Well, I think it was response of everyone else. It's horrible remarks. They're remarks you certainly don't want to hear from anyone, much less a presidential candidate. Then when you reflect on it, he apologized for them. He said he realized that he was wrong. That doesn't reflect the way he looks at things today, and I think he made a full and complete apology for it.
He probably is going to do it again tonight. So then we have to factor that into all the other things that are involved in this election which includes what's going to happen with our economy, what's going to happen with us nationally. Are we can have higher taxes, lower taxes, what kind of supreme court are we going to have? all those things are going to go on no matter what and the question is, is this the one issue on which we should decide it?
Apparently Democrats don't think the one issue they should decide their election on is the fact that Hillary Clinton seems to have used a State Department as a pay for play operation of the Clinton Foundation. Hundreds of millions of dollars, 20 percent of our uranium sold to Russia and 200 million or so going to the Clinton Foundation. These are things that are, you know, equally as bad, in fact, criminal. But the democrats need to overcome that -- the democrats need to overcome that and the republicans are panicking.
TAPPER: I understand you would want to change the subject. I would, too, were I you. first of all, let me say that i don't know that a lot of people who saw the tape, who saw the apology thought it was a sincere apology. I’ve heard trump supporters describe it as not seeming sincere. In the tape he goes on to say, he goes on to attack Bill and Hillary Clinton for their behavior. Normally a full and contrite apology is just an acceptance that one did something wrong...
GIULIANI: It was.
TAPPER: ... and it's not just the words he uses, it's this casual attitude, and then no deflection, just I accept it. I did something wrong and that's the end of it. He went on the attack against the Clintons and I think a lot of people thought, boy, this doesn't really feel like an apology to me.
GIULIANI: Well, first of all, it was an apology, and that was... he definitely apologized. I know from talking to him that he genuinely feels very sorry about this and it's certainly not the views that he holds today. He's run for public office. he spent the last year and a half traveling around the country. He realized that the responsibility that he has to the people that follow him and that believe that we have to make a change in this country. I think that alone has put a heavier weight of responsibility on his shoulders than he ever had when even he was an entertainment star and the star of The Apprentice.
It's a different man that emerges when you campaign around the country for a year and a half and hear and hear the concerns and the problems of the American people and you realize that roughly half of them believe what he believes and think this country needs a very big change and he's the agent of that change. So...
TAPPER: Right, but I guess the question is he's talking about actions that are sexual assault and he was 59 or 60 years old when he said it. This wasn't something he said when he was 18 years old. He's talking about a feeling of entitlement because he's a star. He can go up to women and grab them by the vagina and it's okay. He won't get in trouble for it. It's really offensive on just a basic human level. Who did he do that to?
GIULIANI: Yes. Well, first of all, I don't know that he did it to anyone. This is talk and gosh all mighty you know, he who hasn't sin put out the first stone here. I know some of these people dropping...
TAPPER: I will gladly tell you , Mr. Mayor, I have never said that. I have never done that. I’m happy to throw a stone. I don't know any man, I’ve been in locker rooms, I’ve been a member of a fraternity. I have never heard any man ever brag about being able to maul women because they get away with it, never.
GIULIANI: Well, we've taken it to an extra degree. In any event, we've taken it to an extra degree of what he said. The fact is that men at times talk like that, not all men, but men do.
TAPPER: You talk like that?
GIULIANI: He was wrong for doing it. I am not justifying it. I believe it's wrong. I know he believes it's wrong. I believe this is not the man that we're talking about today. And maybe the reference to Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton is the fact that you're really upset about this, but gosh all mighty there were an awful lot of things particularly Hillary Clinton attacking the women who Bill Clinton sexually assaulted, sexually abused and she was the leader of the attack against them. So maybe he felt that that at least put in context the kind of anger that there would be at him.
TAPPER: Well, I think a lot of those charges came out in the '90s and they did offend a lot of people and continue to offend a lot of people, but Bill Clinton as we discussed is not the nominee. Do we expect Donald Trump this evening to go after -- to go after the Clinton on this issue, on wanting (crosstalk).
GIULIANI: Well, I certainly don't expect him to go after Bill Clinton. And you're absolutely right. You're correct. Bill Clinton is not the candidate but Hillary Clinton is the candidate and Hillary Clinton in many of those situations was either leading or part of the attack on the women who were telling the truth, and ugh...
TAPPER: I don't really know that that's factually accurate. I mean...
GIULIANI: Well, that is factually accurate.
TAPPER: She said nasty things about Gennifer Flowers, but I’ve gone through and looked as to what she actually said and did and I don't know that that's true, Mr. Mayor.
GIULIANI: Well that is true. I mean, all you have to do is read the books about those times and all the things that had to be done when Governor Clinton was running for president and the women that had to be visited and I mean, you'd have to be naive not to realize that that was going on. Plus the things that she said about Monica Lewinsky.
I don't want to get into all that. but the reality is you can't sit there and say it's not true that Hillary Clinton was attacking these women. There are all sorts of quotes from her about it. and every one who has dealt it, even in George Stephanopoulos's book he talks about it.
TAPPER: You say what really matters are the issues facing the American people today but before this story came out -- even before the story was out Hillary Clinton was winning in almost every battleground state. We now have 16 republican senators, 16, who say that either they cannot support Donald Trump or that he needs to re-examine his candidacy possibly even drop out of the race. What is your message to these Republicans, senators, governors, members of the house who say they're not voting for Donald Trump, that he should consider for the good of their party, good of the country to leave the race.
GIULIANI: Well, my message is that his presidency will be a heck of a lot better than Hillary Clinton’s from their point of view. His presidency will reduce taxes. His presidency will end up putting us in a much stronger position with regard to radical Islamic terrorism. He's going to increase the size of the military. She's going to decrease it dramatically. And I believe his approach to radical Islamic terrorism is going to help reduce and hopefully eliminate the attacks we're getting in America that now are the greatest number of attacks we've had since September 11th, in less than a year.
TAPPER: So, the last question Mr. Mayor, has anyone in his inner circle broached the subject of stepping down with Mr. Trump? Has anyone even raised it? Is he even aware that 16 U.S. Senators who are republicans are saying they're not voting for him and what's his response?
GIULIANI: Well, I don't know if he's aware of the exact number. I wasn't aware of the exact number until you gave it to me, but I was aware yesterday there were various people asking for him to step down. Yes, he is aware of the fact that a number of Republicans have pulled their support, and he is not going to drop out. He is going to remain. He is going to apologize for what he did. He is going to explain to people that that is not the man he is today. And he is going to count on the fact that the American people are a fair and decent people and when someone asks for forgiveness they usually give it. I mean, the reality is this is not the man then. This is not the man that ran for president for a year and half and learned the tremendous concerns the American people have and really is the only one right now who is in a position to straighten it out.
