Republican Strategist: Giuliani's Collusion Claims Are All for Show
*By Christian Smith*
President Trump's attorney and close adviser Rudy Giuliani made the cable news rounds Monday morning, claiming that collusion is not necessarily a crime on "Fox and Friends" and CNN's "New Day."
But Giuliani's media blitz is all a show, said Republican strategist Rick Wilson, who once worked for the former New York City mayor. And maybe it's the silence that speaks more than the noise.
"The more they project about things that aren't there, the more you know that they know those things are there," Wilson explained in an interview with Cheddar Monday.
It's all part of a deliberate effort to stunt media coverage of the latest on Russia's alleged election tampering during the 2014 and 2016 cycles, Wilson added.
Giuliani's comments follow former FBI Director James Comey's assertion during a CNN town hall in [April](https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/30/politics/rudy-giuliani-collusion-crime-cnntv/index.html) that, "\[Collusion\]"is not actually a thing that exists under the federal laws of the United States."
As the trial of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort looms on Tuesday, Wilson says the administration is trying to stage a distraction for Trump supporters.
"What you're doing here is watching an exercise in the creation of 'the message of the week' bubble for the Trump folks," Wilson said.
But there's more ahead: Wilson expects that there will be new developments "coming down the pipe from Robert Mueller."
For more on this story, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/rudy-giuliani-makes-controversial-claims-in-cable-news-interviews).
Zachary Petrizzo, media reporter at The Daily Beast, joins Cheddar Politics to discuss former President Trump's endorsement of Dr. Oz in the U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania, and why some parts of the MAGA base are unhappy about it.
Larry Sharpe, libertarian candidate for New York governor, joins Cheddar Politics to talk about the issues motivating his campaign. The discusses his endorsement from the progressive Forward party founded by former presidential candidate Andrew Yang, and changes that can be made to voting systems.
Cheddar Politics breaks down the seismic shift in White House rhetoric surrounding Russia's war on Ukraine. President Biden began calling the alleged war crimes committed by Russian soldiers in the Kyiv region "genocide." Foreign policy and national security analyst A. Ari Aramesh joins Cheddar News to discuss what constitutes genocide and whether the developments in Ukraine qualify.
President Joe Biden said he is considering forgiving some federal student debt, a step that would help him fulfill a campaign promise and provide relief to borrowers who took out thousands of dollars in loans to finance their higher education.
Catching you up on what you need to know on April 28, 2022, with Elon Musk mocking Twitter's top legal exec Vijaya Gadde on the platform itself, a probe in George Floyd's death finding discrimination within the Minneapolis police force, the latest California drought leading to new water restrictions, and more.
Tech giant Microsoft won a military contract for the production of its IVAS (integrated visual augmentation system) combat goggles, based on its HoloLens ARG tech, worth up to $21.9 billion over 10 years. However, the Pentagon is now saying that the device "has not yet demonstrated the capability to serve as a fighting goggle," and that the Army made mistakes in the program's initial stages by not clearly describing minimum performance standards. While testing continues, concerns have grown outside of the Defense Department to Congress and even within Microsoft itself. Cheddar's Ken Buffa takes a deeper look at the possible boondoggle.
U.S. stocks fell sharply to close Tuesday's session, with the Nasdaq dropping 3.95% and hitting a new one-year low. Frances Newton Stacy, Director of Strategy for Optimal Capital, joins Cheddar News to discuss her reaction to how markets closed the session, and to break down Q3 2022 earnings from Microsoft. "Netflix was sort of the big warning, and I think Big Tech was down today in anticipation of these earnings," she says.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed into law a bill that strips Disney World of its special self-governing status. This came after Disney spoke out against Florida's so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill, some saying in retaliation of that. Ben Means, Professor of Law and the John T. Campbell Chair in Business and Professional Ethics at the University of South Carolina School of Law, breaks down how the new law might impact Disney’s business moving forward.