Is Donald Trump growing weary of the newest member of his legal team, Rudy Giuliani? And if so, is it because he is opening up more avenues of potential legal peril or is it because he is getting more attention than his boss?
Well, the Associated Press is reporting that Trump is "growing increasingly irritated" with Giuliani's "off message media blitz" over the last week.
In fact, Trump may try to stop Giuliani from even going on tv to do interviews going forward, so as to limit any more potential damage he could do to Trump's already precarious legal situation. Trump is also annoyed that the Stormy Daniel's story has been given new storylines, as Giuliani provided even more murkiness regarding when Trump really knew, if he paid it back, if payments were "structured" to avoid detection and if the payment was made in a format designed to avoid violation of campaign donation laws.
During an interview with Sean Hannity last Wednesday, Giuliani flat out contradicted Trump's statement about knowledge of the payment. In fact, he said that the payment was done in with Trump's knowledge and approval and designed in a "retainer" format of $35,000 a month. He also said that the payments were "funneled" through a law firm. That is not a word you want to use in a legal case. Ever.
Trump told the press on Friday that Giuliani needed to get his facts straight and that he was new at the job. Sure. Sure. Well, that didn't seem to help. Over the weekend, Giuliani did a few more interviews and dug the hole even deeper by saying:
“Cohen takes care of situations like this, then gets paid for them sometimes.”
Wait, did he say THEM. As in, more than one woman. Whoopsie. That's a hell of a slip up.
Trump is (reportedly) livid at the insinuation that multiple women may have been paid off.
So far, Trump has not flat out banned Giuliani from going on news shows to give unscripted interviews, but it is only a matter of time. The comparisons between Giuliani and Anthony Scaramucci have been fast and furious, although One Scaramucci equals 11 days. Giuliani started the day after the Hannity interview (per Trump's statement), so he hasn't made it One Full Scaramucci - yet. Will he hang on that long or will the new measure of time be One Giuliani?
BONUS: Randy Rainbow adds his thoughts here:
