Rudy Giuliani was in the hot seat Tuesday night “Hardball” host Chris Matthews called him out on the rhetoric he has used as a chief surrogate for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

“You’re a smart guy,” Matthews said. “Are you proud of the way you’ve been so loyal to Trump that I think you’ve gone over the top?”

Matthews hit the former New York City mayor over how the Trump campaign has alienated minority voters and how it fanned the conspiracy that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is hiding a grave illness.

“Why did your candidate and you yourself refer to Hillary Clinton as sick and almost dying most of the campaign and that she ought to be in prison?” Matthews said. “You can’t claim to have run a clean campaign if you call your opponent ‘at death’s door’ and belonging behind bars.”

Giuliani insisted that Trump had mentioned minorities in most of his speeches ― although he didn’t clarify that the GOP nominee mostly referred to their “rotting schools” and inner-city violence ― and denied that the Trump campaign had any sort of white nationalist agenda.

“I didn’t think there was anything wrong with you till this campaign,” Matthews quipped.

Giuliana stood by his analysis.

“I am proud of the way I’ve conducted myself. I think every issue I’ve raised is a legitimate issue,” he said.

Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.