Giuliani: ‘I believe Donald Trump. I don’t know about the nine women.’
Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and one of Donald Trump’s top advisers, says when it comes to sexual assault allegations against the Republican nominee, he believes the candidate but is not ready to believe the multiple women who are accusing him.
“I believe my friend Donald Trump when he tells me he didn’t do it,” Giuliani told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” Sunday. “I know Donald. I have been with him for 28 years. I have never seen him do anything like that.”
Since last week’s presidential debate — when Trump said he never touched women the way he described on an explosive 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape — several women came forward saying that he did.
“I believe Donald Trump,” Giuliani said. “I don’t know about the nine women.”
On the “Today” show, the former mayor said a “50-50 test” should be applied to each case of alleged assault.
“The idea that every victim should be believed? That’s nonsense,” he said.
Related: Another woman accuses Trump of sexual misconduct
Giuliani took particular issue with Jessica Leeds’ account of being sexually assaulted by Trump aboard a New York-bound airliner three decades ago. Leeds recently told the New York Times that Trump lifted his armrest, grabbed her breasts and attempted to put his hand up her skirt when they sat next to each other in first class.
“Fifteen minutes of groping in a first-class cabin of an airplane, it doesn’t make sense,” Giuliani said on CNN. “I have been in first class a lot, fortunately. Since I stopped being mayor, I can afford first class. I have — you see everything that goes on in first class.”
“She also said she was able to lift the armrest,” Giuliani said on “Today.” “And in those days in first class, the armrests didn’t lift.”
Last week, Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson was widely mocked for offering the same defense.
“First-class seats have fixed armrests, so what I can tell you about her story is, if she was groped on a plane, it wasn’t by Donald Trump and it certainly wasn’t in first class,” Pierson said on CNN. “How could it happen? Explain how that happens. There are fixed seats on first class.”
The panel burst into laughter.
At a rally in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Friday, Giuliani attacked the media for publishing the multiple allegations against Trump.
“They are liars!” Giuliani yelled.
The former mayor then accused the press of a long-standing bias against conservative candidates.
“It gets worse every year,” Giuliani said. “They did this to [Mitt] Romney. They did it to [John] McCain. They did it to Ronald Reagan. They don’t like Republicans. They don’t like conservatives. They don’t like what we stand for, and they want to undercut our values.”
He echoed a similar refrain on Sunday.
“Eighty to 85 percent of the media is against him,” Giuliani said. “When you look at the New York Times, when you pick it up every morning, on the top of the paper, there are three stories that are anti-Trump, some of them totally baseless, some of some silly. And then, at the bottom, you get a little something about WikiLeaks. Same thing with the Washington Post. I mean, they’re way out of control. The Daily News, clown outfits of Donald Trump.”
