Rudy Giuliani was intentionally told the wrong time for a presidential debate preparation session last year because other aides to then-President Donald Trump found his advice so unhelpful, according to a new book.
Giuliani, who was Trump’s personal attorney at the time, took part in a September debate prep session in which former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) filled in as Joe Biden and Trump senior counselor Kellyanne Conway acted as moderator, the upcoming book by Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker said, according to Insider, which obtained an advance copy.
According to the book, “I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year,” Giuliani clashed with Christie and Conway in that session. Giuliani reportedly insisted that the president spend more time discussing his opponent’s son Hunter and his business dealings in Ukraine, while Christie suggested that Trump merely touch on the Hunter Biden subject.
“Most of the other advisors found Giuliani’s advice to be ‘supremely unhelpful,’” according to the book, which is due out Tuesday.
Giuliani wanted to attend the next prep session on Sept. 28, the day before the first debate in Cleveland, moderated by Fox News host Chris Wallace, but other aides tricked him into missing most of it by telling him it was at 2 p.m. when it actually began for noon, according to the book.
He arrived in time to catch the last half-hour of the session, the book said.
During the Cleveland debate, remembered as one of the most chaotic in history, Trump apparently took Giuliani’s advice nonetheless. He repeatedly lobbed personal attacks on Hunter Biden, bringing up his battles with substance abuse as well as discredited claims about his foreign business dealings.
The claims about Giuliani align with reporting from Michael Wolff, author of another new book about Trump’s final months in office. In “Landslide,” Wolff reports that Giuliani attended one debate prep session but that “no one wanted him back,” according to Raw Story.
“His phone rang constantly, and he couldn’t shut it off,” the book said, according to Raw Story. “He shuffled endless pieces of paper without being able to find what he was looking for. He couldn’t work his iPad to bring up what he wanted to show, reliably stalling meetings. And he went down rabbit holes — they could get Hunter Biden, if they could just find the guy who signed the forms to get Hunter the waiver to get into the military.”
Giuliani’s law license was suspended in New York and Washington, D.C., over his persistent efforts to overturn the election for Trump. After the election, Giuliani led efforts to get Trump the result he wanted and contributed significantly to the spread of disinformation and conspiracy theories about the vote.