*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).
The Trump campaign says it has filed lawsuits Wednesday in Pennsylvania and Michigan, laying the groundwork for contesting the outcome in undecided battleground states.
Councilman Ritchie Torres became the first openly gay Black man to win a Congressional seat on Election Day. He will now represent New York's 15th District recently vacated by long-time Congressman José Serrano.
We'll be taking our feelings about this deeply divisive election to work with us. An expert weighs in on how to keep up company morale and coworker relationships when disagreements arise.
Voters in Arizona and New Jersey added their states to the list of places legalizing marijuana for adults. And Oregon became the first state to decriminalize possession of small amounts of hard drugs.
In Kentucky, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell fended off Democrat Amy McGrath, a former fighter pilot in a costly campaign, but he acknowledged his GOP colleagues face tougher races.
In Georgia, Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler and Democrat Raphael Warnock have advanced to a Jan. 5 runoff in the special election for Loeffler’s Senate seat.
Democrat Sarah McBride has won a state Senate race in Delaware and would become the first openly transgender state senator in the country when sworn in.
Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, who expressed racist views and support for QAnon conspiracy theories in a series of online videos, has won a U.S. House seat representing northwest Georgia.
With the coronavirus now surging anew, voters ranked the pandemic and the economy as top concerns in the race between President Donald Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden, according to AP VoteCast, a national survey of the electorate.
As it has for more than 170 years, The Associated Press will count the vote and report the results on Nov. 3 and beyond.
