[Cabrera:] President Trump's attorney, Rudy Giuliani, holding a press event right now after a controversial week that included him contradicting the President on the payment to Stormy Daniels. Let's listen in.
[Giuliani:] So, go ahead. What would you like to ask? Again, as I said, I will repeat it one more time. Not answering questions about that now. We will talk about that tomorrow and later on in the week.
[Unidentified Female:] Why are people so afraid of the words are regime change and assume that it must mean war boots on the ground?
[Giuliani:] Well, it almost always doesn't. I mean, I guess this regime is so violent and the biggest supporter of terrorism in the world that they assume that it will be violent. I'm hoping it wouldn't be. More like what happened in Poland, more like what happened in Russia. I mean, Russia was one of the biggest armies in the world and it wasn't violent.
[Unidentified Male:] Mr. Mayor, have you talked
[Giuliani:] Yes, sir.
[Unidentified Male:] As you very clearly demonstrated when you held the paper up what you thought the President would do with the nuclear agreement was spit on it and get rid of it. Has he told you personally?
[Giuliani:] No. I mean, it's a different thing when he is President of the United States. And I don't mix my role as attorney for him with my foreign policy views. He knows my views from the time of the campaign. I know his views. It's different, it's a year and a half of history, but he has surrounded by really terrific foreign policy advisers. And I would think John Bolton's view of this is no different today than it was a year ago, which is that this agreement is one of the worst ever reached in American history. Unfortunately, the Iranian regime has gotten the benefits of it already. And I think Prime Minister Netanyahu did a pretty good job of showing us how it was violated. The MEK could do that same job as effectively as the prime minister. So, I don't
[Unidentified Male:] On a scale of one to ten
[Giuliani:] But I can't predict. It wouldn't be fair now. I mean, if I were, just in private life completely, I would give you my prediction. You know, what my desire is but I can't give you a prediction because I, you know, I represent the President. And I can't and I certainly can't speak for him. You know, Bolton maybe or Pompeo can speak for him but I can't.
[Unidentified Female:] Mr. Mayor
[Unidentified Male:] What about North Korea? What do you anticipate happening in North Korea?
[Giuliani:] No. I think I'm praying like everyone, including nobody's done more to get people released from North Korea than the gentleman who was here before, Bill Richardson, for whom I have enormous respect, even though we are in different parties. I think he would I think the less said about it right now the better and the more we pray, the better. But we could have three people released. That would be historic in and of itself. And then we could have we could have, maybe, just maybe, a nonnuclear North Korea. Wow. That would be unbelievable. I guess you can't go that far with it yet. I mean, he first has to decide what he wants to do with the agreement. Seems to me there are three choices, right, one that I don't like, continue it. Second one, renegotiate it. Number three, throw it out, get the sanctions back, and then see if they don't come to their on their knees again like they did last time. President Obama obviously, I will not answer that question. But you can
[Unidentified Male:] Why not?
[Giuliani:] Because this is not the time for it. The concentration here is on the freedom of the Iranian people. Can you have some simple respect and remain concentrated on that? There is plenty of time to answer the other questions.
[Unidentified Male:] Do you support a regime change?
[Giuliani:] I have been in support of regime change for I don't think how long. I mean, ten years. I continue to be. I think it's the only way to peace in the Middle East. It's more important than an Israel-Palestinian deal. Iran used to be an ally of not only the United States but of Israel. That could happen again. I mean, you're seeing Egypt becoming an ally of Saudi Arabia and Israel, Saudi Arabia, Emirates, Qatar, this could really spread.
[Unidentified Female:] When John Bolton was named national security adviser, using his connections to MEK and really painting him and the group in just
[Giuliani:] Look, I went through it with John at that time. I wrote letters for him. I didn't testify because they didn't want know testify but I wrote letters for him, and MEK has been one of the more maligned organizations, but it's come into its own now. It was listed as a terrorist group by one of the biggest mistakes of the Clinton administration in order to placate Iran and I have to teach you, you can't placate them. They are murders, they are killers, they are thieves and they are corrupt and they kill members of MEK. And the silly people in our state department said, the MEK is not really a threat. Then why is the Iranian regime killing them if they are not a threat? You don't kill people that are not threats just for the fun of it.
[Unidentified Female:] Do you think the President might go out and tweet in favor of what's going on in Iran.
[Giuliani:] He did. He did.
[Unidentified Female:] What kind of effect is that having on the morale within Iran? Is that what we should be watching?
[Giuliani:] I think it's great. I think the President I think maybe more attention paid to that and not some of the other things you want to talk about. I think the same scenario could happen in Iran that has happened in North Korea, because this President is so much more effective than our prior President, who was feckless. I mean, the prior President drew a line in the sand, Assad killed his own people, and he did nothing. This President drew a line in the sand and he bombed Assad. Assad has stopped. So we got to hope that works. It's not going to work all the time. It's not going to work immediately but long-term, it's the much better approach. Thank you.
[Unidentified Female:] The status of the three American hostages?
[Giuliani:] I don't know the status of them. You might know it better than I do. They looked pretty good yesterday. I haven't paid attention to it today and I'm praying it will get done.
[Unidentified Female:] Change from Thursday comments on Thursday?
[Giuliani:] Nothing's changed. They are working on it. And I'm not privy to I'm not privy to what they're doing. I'm reading the newspapers like you are. Thank you.
[Unidentified Male:] What's the current status of the Mueller investigation?
[Cabrera:] Of course that was Rudy Giuliani taking a few questions from reporters following his speech to the Iran freedom convention in D.C., saying he wanted to keep the conversation about Iran in that question and answer session. Let's bring in CNN political commentator and former special assistant to President George W. Bush, Scott Jennings. First of all, Scott, nobody wanted to really talk about Iran in that Q&A because Rudy Giuliani is representing the President as his outside counsel in the Russia probe. Why is he talking about foreign policy instead of taking questions on that?
[Scott Jennings, Former Special Assistant To President George W. Bush:] Yes, great question. I mean, it seems like Rudy has taken on a larger role than just external counsel for an outside matter. It seems like right now, he is one of the closest people to the President when it comes to all things both legal and policy. He is not shy about commenting on it. So, I think what will be interesting to see is whether he continues to play this role from outside the White House. I mean, the things he was saying today and the things he was talking about, these are normally the purview of your national security adviser, your state department, those kinds of people who are inside the government. Certainly, the President can take counsel from anyone he likes, it's just unusual to see someone outside speaking so freely about it when they're not actually part of the national security apparatus.
[Cabrera:] Even in his comments today at this convention, he talked about the North Korean detainees and said he, again, believed they were going to be released in the next few days. So he seems or implies to know something about that as well. But let me ask you about the broader picture and his media blitz this week, how he contradicted the President's previous comments about the stormy Daniels payment. Here's how conservative media reacted to that.
[Unidentified Female:] I love Rudy, but they better have an explanation for that. That's a problem. Look, I'm I was a criminal defense lawyer. This is what I did. I was always looking for inconsistencies in statements like any lawyer would. The left is going to seize on that. It's all about credibility and impeaching someone's credibility throughout the process. So, if you are not being if you're not being truthful about this, then are you being truthful about the Russia you can see where this is going to go.
[Cabrera:] Scott, if FOX is conflicted on how to react, should the President be worried about the conservative base's reaction?
[Jennings:] Well, I don't think the base is going to leave the President over, you know, a couple of days of fumbles by Rudy Giuliani. I mean, clearly, he got out over his skis, the President had to reel him in. I think what the base wants to see for the President is a competent legal strategy in an external apparatus to handle certain questions moving forward. That competent legal strategy, I think, is going to be set by Emmett Flood, who's a real lawyer who knows how to handle real investigations. It strikes me that Rudy Giuliani is really taking on a PR role. The real legal role here, the where the President's really in danger is on the legal side and that's why they went out and got a great lawyer in Emmett Flood who knows what he is doing. So my suspicion is, once Emmett gets to the office, there's going to be a lot more tight scripting of when Rudy Giuliani goes out and discusses the implications of certain legal machinations in this case.
[Cabrera:] But you just said that Emmett Flood is a real lawyer. You don't think Rudy Giuliani is a real lawyer?
[Jennings:] Well, I don't think Mr. Giuliani's been practicing for quite some time. Of course he is a real lawyer. I mean, he is alive and he is a real person. But you know, Emmett Flood is a real, practicing attorney who has real high-level experience handling investigations in the executive branch. He represented us when I was special assistant to President Bush in the second term. On a lot of serious matters, on investigation issues. So, Emmett Flood is exactly the kind of lawyer you need in this situation and it strikes me that he won't be playing the public role that Rudy is playing. So if you want to know who's going to be running the legal strategy, it's Emmett. Who is running the PR strategy? That's Rudy.
[Cabrera:] And yet, Rudy Giuliani, we understand, did meet with Robert Mueller earlier this week, trying to lay out the parameters that there were to be an interview with the President and the President yesterday said he would be happy to sit down with Mueller. Do you think that's going to happen?
[Jennings:] I don't know. I would be surprised at this point if the President sat down with Mueller for an interview, despite what he has said. Perhaps they are trying to find middle ground here where perhaps the President could answer questions in a time-limited fashion or answer questions in writing. I mean, the safest thing to do would be to answer questions and have them submitted in writing. That way you have really tight control over exactly how you answer them. But given open-ended several long hours interview to this special counsel under the circumstances and under the posture that has been brought forth this week, I think it's highly unlikely that the President will ultimately sit down and do that. I know he has maintained his innocence and he has maintained that there has been no collusion. So they may take a little PR hit on him not sitting down, but it's probably not worth the risk if they can get a deal to do it in writing.
[Cabrera:] There is also the possibility if he doesn't do so voluntarily, Mueller could subpoena Trump and that could make this investigation go on much longer. Is that what Republicans want?
[Jennings:] Well, I think Republicans want this investigation to ultimately come to an end. And they want the investigation to come to an end and tell us what we really all want to know. Nobody really wants to know about Stormy Daniels. What people want to know about is whether Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin and the Russians interfered in our election, how did they do it? And how do we stop it in the future? That's what this whole thing started as, a collusion investigation and how do we stop the Russians from interfering in our democracy. But we are in some ways way far a-flung from that right now. So I think what Republicans want is this to eventually come to an end because it's been going on for a long time, and to tell us what's most vital, not about the President's sexual history, but about the future of the country as it relates to the Russians.
[Cabrera:] Scott Jennings, thank you so much for joining us.
[Jennings:] Thank you.
[Cabrera:] Quick break. We'll be right back.