Appearing during the 8am hour of CBS This Morning, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani scoffed when co-host Charlie Rose suggested the flurry of national security leaks coming from the Obama administration were not aimed at making the President “look like a superhero.”
Giuliani laughed at him: “Oh, come on, Charlie. Why are you leaking all this stuff that shouldn’t be talked about, shouldn’t be discussed? The only reason you’re doing it is to try to make the President look good on foreign policy.”
That should have ended it, but Rose’s convention co-host, Norah O’Donnell, tried a second time to come to Obama’s defense, citing how an ex-Navy SEAL has written his own unauthorized account of the mission. “So it’s not just at the White House or the CIA. You have someone who’s involved in the operation in the military talking about it,” she rationalized.
Giuliani mocked that, too: “Oh, sure. And if we analyze President Obama by neutral standards, what we would say is: ‘Bad example, set at the top.’ That’s what they’d say about me, if a cop did something wrong: ‘Bad example, set at the top.’”
The exchange was set off by a discussion of Chris Christie’s keynote speech last night, with Giuliani making the point that it was aimed at illustrating how Obama has been ducking the fiscal insolvency problems facing the federal government if spending programs are not reformed. Rose cited the bin Laden mission as an example of Obama showing courage in office.
Here’s the relevant transcript, starting at about 8:15am ET on Wednesday, August 29:
RUDY GIULIANI: That’s what his [Chris Christie’s] speech was: President Obama is not a courageous leader. He gives the impression of being one, but he’s afraid to do the tough things that need to be done. Medicare is going to go bankrupt unless we fix it. President Obama is afraid to say that.
CHARLIE ROSE: But we just heard about how he’s prepared to do the tough things that have to be done on foreign policy, with the Osama bin Laden mission.
GIULIANI: Well that was — I mean — I admire him for doing Osama bin Laden. It was terrific. I think he’s taken a lot of that credit away with all the darn leaking they’re doing, which is abominable and disgraceful. The leaking that’s been going to make President Obama like a superhero. I mean, this is like really bad stuff. You shouldn’t be doing this.
ROSE: Well, some would question whether they’re trying to do that, to make him look like a superhero.
GIULIANI: Oh, come on, Charlie. Why are you leaking all this stuff that shouldn’t be talked about, shouldn’t be discussed? The only reason you’re doing it is to try to make the President look good on foreign policy.
NORAH O’DONNELL: Well, now you have a Navy SEAL himself, sort of breaking the code of silence and actually writing a book about it. So it’s not just at the White House or the CIA. You have someone who’s involved in the operation in the military talking about it.
GIULIANI: Oh, sure. And if we analyze President Obama by neutral standards, what we would say is: “Bad example, set at the top.” That’s what they’d say about me, if a cop did something wrong: “Bad example, set at the top.”
-- Rich Noyes is Research Director at the Media Research Center. Click here [1] to follow him on Twitter.