I never said there was no collusion between Trump, Russia - Giuliani

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Washington - Rudy Giuliani is now claiming that he "never said there was no collusion" between President Donald Trump's campaign and Russia leading up to the 2016 presidential election. Appearing on CNN Wednesday night, host Chris Cuomo pointed out that the president's lawyer appeared to contradict his own past statements about collusion as well as what Trump has repeatedly said. On Twitter, Trump has used the phrase "no collusion" dozens of times, and a number of those instances were direct denials that his campaign was involved with the Russians. The heated exchange began shortly after Giuliani raged about the amount of "false reporting" on the Russia investigation. "Mr. Mayor, false reporting is saying that nobody in the campaign had any contacts with Russia," Cuomo responded. "False reporting is saying that there has been no suggestion of any kind of collusion between the campaign and any Russians." Giuliani jumped to correct Cuomo.

"You just misstated my position," the former New York mayor said. "I never said there was no collusion between the campaign, or between people in the campaign."

Cuomo's face contorted into an expression of disbelief. "Yes, you have," he shot back.

"I have not," Giuliani protested. "I said the president of the United States. There is not a single bit of evidence the president of the United States committed the only crime you can commit here, conspired with the Russians to hack the DNC."

Giuliani and Cuomo then proceeded to tangle over the president's past statements that "nobody" associated with his campaign colluded.

"He didn't say nobody, he said he didn't," Giuliani said, which Cuomo immediately pointed out was not true.

On his show, which aired right after Cuomo, Don Lemon summed up the exchange for his viewers.

"Man, Rudy Giuliani out-Giulianied himself tonight," Lemon said.

The Washington Post