Fox News anchor Shepard Smith called out President Trump’s most recent legal adviser, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, for changing his narrative following his comments on the payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Earlier on Friday, Giuliani released a statement arguing that he was not speaking for Trump when he made the surprising disclosure on Fox News Wednesday that Trump repaid his personal lawyer Michael Cohen a sum of money that was intended to silence Daniels about an alleged affair she had with Trump. The statement came shortly after Trump told reporters Giuliani would “get his facts straight” about the payment.
“In Washington, a brand-new series of words presented for our consumption,” Smith said about Giuliani’s statement Friday. “Maybe Team Trump’s just shifting strategies … maybe they’re trying to confuse everybody. Certainly, the undeniable chaos is definitely not chaos at all, they are clear on that point. But what Team Trump said last month, then changed last week, then reimagined again on Tuesday, was revised and extended again this morning. And space under the bus is now at a premium.”
On Wednesday, Giuliani told Fox News host Sean Hannity that Trump reimbursed his personal lawyer Michael Cohen $130,000 for a hush money payment to Daniels.
Trump said he knew nothing about the payment last month aboard Air Force One, and Giuliani told the Wall Street Journal later Wednesday that his comments on Fox News did not contradict Trump’s because Trump was “probably not aware” of the payments at the time.
Trump tweeted Thursday that Cohen “received a monthly retainer, not from the campaign and having nothing to do with the campaign.”
Then on Friday, Giuliani said his comments about the payment concerned what Trump may or may not have been aware of at the time the payment was made. “My references to timing were not describing my understanding of the president’s knowledge, but instead, my understanding of these matters,” Giuliani said.
Smith said that Giuliani was in a tight spot after Trump’s comments about getting the facts correct about the payment and told viewers to let Giuliani’s most recent statement “sink in, just in case this version lasts more than a few hours.”
“In other words, when he told Hannity a fact he didn’t already know, it wasn’t a fact, but a feeling of personal understanding and misunderstanding of the president’s knowledge of timing and understanding,” Smith said. “Whether you prefer ranch or balsamic on Giuliani’s words, President Trump denies his own story has changed at all.”
