Everything incorrectly
What’s that thumping sound? The bus wheels rolling over Rudy Giuliani.
President Trump undercut his attorney, Rudolph W. Giuliani, on Friday, and said the former New York mayor will eventually get the facts right regarding a payment to a pornographic actress who said she had an affair with Mr. Trump.
Everything “has been said incorrectly,” Mr. Trump said, blaming the media coverage and Mr. Giuliani’s short time on the job.
Oh yes, he was an intern until just the other day, he’s a total novice, he can’t possibly be expected to know all the facts yet, and that’s why it was a great idea for him to talk to Sean Hannity.
Mr. Giuliani, who joined Mr. Trump’s legal team last month, “started a day ago,” Mr. Trump said, speaking to reporters on Friday as he left Washington to attend a National Rifle Association convention in Dallas.
“He’s a great guy,” Mr. Trump said. “He’ll get his facts straight.”
So Trump told a ridiculous boob lie – what, in order to illustrate how unimportant it is to get the facts straight?
And then, note the trip to hang out with the extremely right-wing National Rifle Association, in callous disregard or outright contempt for Parkland and all the other mass shootings since the last NRA convention.
Mr. Giuliani kicked off the confusion with an interview on Fox News on Wednesday, surprising even some of Mr. Trump’s other attorneys.
In a series of Twitter posts the following morning, the president backed up what Mr. Giuliani said. But, on Friday, Mr. Trump said that everything said about the transaction “has been said incorrectly.”
“It’s actually very simple,” the president said, without elaboration.
Presidents don’t elaborate. You’re supposed to listen, and believe. That’s it.
So, evidence of conflict and turmoil inside Trump’s legal team. I can just imagine the non-Giuliani ones screeching “He said WHAT!!!” in response to the rolling fiasco. Maybe he’s purposely screwing Trump, with Trump, not knowing any better, playing along until other adults in the room intervened. Or maybe Giuliani’s suffering from some sort of cognitive impairment. Otherwise, how to explain such stupidity and incompetence? Mind you, willingly choosing to work for Trump knocks a few score IQ points off right off the bat, so maybe there’s not as much explanation required as I thought…
Normally, I am fully inclined to not attribute to malice what can be explained through stupidity, but this current contretemps is making me think there might be something more sinister going on. A couple options:
1: Rudy is actually deliberately trying to undermine Trump. While unlikely in most respects, I could see Rudy being the “establishment GOP hit man”, sent in to make SURE that the Republicans have enough to impeach Trump when his value is overweighed by his negatives. As one unnamed GOP source told a reporter, speaking about the establishment GOP’s attitudes towards Trump: “They like Mike Pence.”
2: Alternately, Rudy is delivering a message. He says what really did happen, then Trump denies it all, and Rudy dutifully retracts it a couple days later. Meanwhile, everyone understands that yes, Rudy’s saying his boss will do anything to silence his opposition, so all you potential witnesses and informants and leakers better keep your mouths shut, right?
Both of these alternate explanations, of course, cast Rudy as a thuggish mobster, a role which I’m quite comfortable imagining him in.
Or they could just all be a clusterfuck of incompetent buffoons.