Rudy Giuliani burst into laughter on Wednesday night after he was asked by CNN’s Chris Cuomo if he thought an anonymous op-ed published by The New York Times was false.
“Do I trust The New York Times? I’m sorry, Chris, I know this shocks you, but I do not trust The New York Times,” President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer said.
The scathing anti-Trump article, written by a “senior official in the Trump administration,” according to the Times, was called a “gutless editorial” by Trump, who demanded that the Times name the author.
Speaking to Cuomo, Giuliani echoed a similar sentiment as Trump’s, referring to the article as a potential national security issue. However, the CNN host pointed out that the reaction of the president was cause for alarm.
“With him going on a hunt in the White House for who talked to [Bob] Woodward? For him saying The New York Times has to turn over their source to the government as a matter of national security? Do you realize how crazy that notion is to even suggest, let alone from a president?” Cuomo said.
It’s been a tumultuous week for the Trump administration, with the Times essay following the release of excerpts from Woodward’s soon-to-be-released book, Fear: Trump in the White House, on Tuesday.
One such excerpt recounts an exchange between Trump and Giuliani following the release of the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape. As reported by CNN, the former New York mayor was the only campaign surrogate who had been willing to defend then-candidate Trump on television.
“Rudy, you’re a baby,” Trump reportedly told him, according to the excerpt. “I’ve never seen a worse defense of me in my life. They took your diaper off right there. You’re like a little baby that needed to be changed. When are you going to be a man?”
“I don’t trust anything I read anymore, not after the stuff that’s been done to me,” Giuliani told Cuomo on Wednesday night. “The latest one being the great, wonderful, totally honorable Bob Woodward who will quote a scurrilous thing about a public figure and not ask for their version of it.”
Check out the full segment above.