Rudy Giuliani tries to clarify his viral 'truth isn't truth' remark by saying it wasn't meant 'as a pontification on moral theology '
- President Donald Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani tried to clarify his "truth isn't truth" remark on Monday.
- Giuliani took to Twitter to say that his "statement was not meant as a pontification on moral theology but one referring to the situation where two people make precisely contradictory statements, the classic 'he said, she said' puzzle."
- Giuliani made the original comment during a back-and-forth with NBC's Chuck Todd over why Trump's legal team had not reached an agreement with special counsel Robert Mueller to have a sit-down interview with the president.
President Donald Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani sought on Monday to clear up his viral remark to NBC's Chuck Todd of "Meet the Press" that "truth isn't truth."
Giuliani took to Twitter to say that his "statement was not meant as a pontification on moral theology but one referring to the situation where two people make precisely contradictory statements, the classic 'he said, she said' puzzle."
"Sometimes further inquiry can reveal the truth other times it doesn't," he continued.
Giuliani made the comment during a back-and-forth with Todd over why Trump's legal team had not reached an agreement with special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, to have a sit-down interview with the president.
Giuliani said he was "not going to be rushed into having" Trump "testify so he gets trapped into perjury."
"And when you tell me that, you know, he should testify because he's going to tell the truth and he shouldn't worry, well that's so silly because it's somebody's version of the truth," Giuliani said. "Not the truth."
"Truth is truth," Todd responded.
"No, it isn't truth," Giuliani shot back. "Truth isn't truth."
Todd later said the comment was "going to become a bad meme," to which Giuliani said, "don't do this to me."
"Don't do 'truth isn't truth' to me," Todd said.
Giuliani for months has expressed the fear that Mueller's team is going to put more credit behind what fired FBI Director James Comey said of his meetings with Trump rather than what Trump has said of them. If Comey's version of events is viewed as the truth, then Trump's contradictions under oath could be viewed as lies. It's what Giuliani has sought to avoid by not having Trump answer questions about potential obstruction of justice, which Mueller wants to ask him about.
Of course, a problem for Trump in the battle for credibility in such a "he said, she said" with Comey is that Trump has already had to change his tune on major incidents regarding the Russia investigation, such as the controversial June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between top campaign officials, his eldest son Donald Trump Jr., and a Russian lawyer.
Last week, Giuliani laid out how the Trump legal team planned to fight a possible subpoena from Mueller for such an interview with Trump. That fight could go all the way to the Supreme Court.