SALT LAKE CITY — Rudy Giuliani didn’t pull any punches when asked about Mitt Romney’s response to the Trump-Ukraine furor, calling the Utah senator the Republican Party’s “Al Gore.”
Appearing on Fox News Channel’s “The Ingraham Angle” on Thursday, President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer said Romney is “bitter” about Trump winning the presidency.
“He’s jealous,” Giuliani said at one point.
A still frame shows Fox News’ Laura Ingraham interviewing Rudy Giuliani on Thursday, Sept. 26, 2019.
Fox News
Romney has been one of few Republicans to raise concern over Trump’s July 25 phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
As news of a whistleblower’s complaint broke last week, Romney said it would be “troubling in the extreme” if Trump or his personal attorney asked or pressured Ukraine’s president to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden.
After the Trump administration released an edited transcript of the call between Trump and Zelenskiy on Wednesday, Romney said he remained “deeply troubled” and “we’ll see where it heads.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., launched an impeachment inquiry this week.
“What do you say to Mitt Romney tonight, given that he runs to the cameras to express his deeply troubled opinion about this?” Fox New’s Laura Ingraham asked Giuliani.
“I don’t know, maybe he’s as confused about this as he was when Candy Crowley contradicted him and his campaign fell apart. I mean, come on, this guy is not, you know, the strongest guy you’re going to find anywhere. I wouldn’t count on him,” Giuliani said.
Giuliani was referring to CNN’s Candy Crowley, who moderated the second presidential debate between Romney and President Barack Obama in 2012. Crowley corrected Romney’s claim that Obama did not refer to the consulate attack in Benghazi as an “act of terror.”
Giuliani went on to call Romney “bitter” about Trump and said “it’s like a child.”
“I mean, look Mitt, Trump did what you couldn’t do. Trump has the ability to relate to people, you don’t. Always been true,” Giuliani said.
“One time, Bill Clinton asked me, ‘What’s this guy Romney like?’ You know what I told him? ‘He’s our Al Gore.’”
Romney’s office declined to respond to Giuliani’s comments.
Giuliani appeared on the Fox program to defend his actions alleged in the anonymous whistleblower’s complaint that was declassified and made public Thursday.
The complaint accuses Trump of pressuring the Ukrainian president to investigate Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden and the White House sought to cover up the phone conversation between the two world leaders. It calls Giuliani a “central figure” in that effort.
Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, was among the Republicans including Romney vying for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination eventually won by the late Arizona Sen. John McCain. During a 2007 campaign fundraiser in Utah, Giuliani said he liked Romney “very much,” that he was a “really good” governor in Massachusetts and that he had campaigned for him.
On Monday, Trump tweeted a video montage he has shared in the past of clips showing Romney losing the 2012 presidential election and Trump winning the 2016 election. The video included a 2016 clip of Trump saying, “That was a race, I have to say, folks, that should have been won,” in reference to Romney’s 2012 run.
Conservative political talk show host Rush Limbaugh also took shots at Romney, claiming on his program Wednesday that the senator “had phone calls or meetings, whatever, with Pelosi and assured her there was Republican support to remove Trump.”
Romney’s office said Friday that didn’t happen.
At the Atlantic Festival earlier this week, Romney said he’s not going to give advice to Pelosi about the matter.
“She’s going to do whatever she thinks is in the best interest of the country and in the best interest of her position of power and her party,” he said. Romney declined to say whether he thinks the whistleblower’s allegations rise to an impeachable offense.
In a weekly email recapping his work, Romney said the Senate Intelligence Committee — which is insisting the whistleblower testify before it — and the House are investigating, and that he would withhold any final judgment until all of the facts are known.
On his show, Limbaugh said Romney is a “Never Trumper, and, if he can, he will get rid of Trump.” Romney, he said, thinks it’s in his best political interests for everybody to think he hates Trump.