Former President Donald Trump had rejected a bid from Rudy Giuliani to serve as secretary of state due to his rumored drinking problem, according to a new book on Giuliani.
Giuliani, who went on to serve as Trump’s personal lawyer, had been close friends with Trump prior to his term in the White House. However, when the former mayor of New York City sought the position of secretary of state after Trump’s victory in the 2016 election, the former president did not share the same enthusiasm due to “negative stories” regarding his friend, journalist Andrew Kirtzman told the Daily Beast on Tuesday.
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“He started just hearing all of these negative stories about him, about his drinking. Giuliani waged this campaign in the press to get the job, which turned Trump off,” Kirtzman said. “They launched an investigation internally in the campaign into Giuliani’s clients, and he had so many clients with potential conflicts that had filled a report, dozens of pages. And eventually, Trump moved on.”
Kirtzman, who was promoting his book Giuliani: The Rise and Fall of America’s Mayor, described the correspondence between Giuliani and Trump as “just fascinating.” He said it seemed the two felt a need “to impress the other,” adding that he believes the feeling between them “still exists to this day.”
The journalist also mentioned a time when Trump helped Giuliani at one of the lowest points in his life, right after Giuliani lost the 2008 presidential primary race. Giuliani’s third wife Judith had told Kirtzman she believed her husband was experiencing clinical depression, based on her background as a nurse, according to Daily Mail.
“For the next month, Trump houses them at this kind of beachfront property, and [they] found there were tunnels under Mar-a-Lago where they were able to kind of walk back and forth undiscovered,” Kirtzman said. “It was there that Giuliani kind of was allowed to get back on his feet and rejoin the world.”
Kirtzman’s book is set to release on Sept. 13, according to Amazon.
Giuliani withdrew his name from the secretary of state contention in late-November 2016, Trump’s transition team announced on Dec. 9 of that year. In a written statement from Trump, the then-president-elect said he would call upon Giuliani “for advice and can see an important place for him in the administration at a later date,” according to Politico.
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The former mayor of New York City told Fox News in early December of that year the process was “confusing” and that he would rather help Trump in a personal capacity.
“The whole thing was becoming kind of very confusing and very difficult for the president-elect, and my desire to be in the Cabinet was great, but it wasn’t that great,” Giuliani said at the time. “He had a lot of terrific candidates, and I thought I could play a better role being on the outside and continuing to be his close friend and adviser.”
