Politics

Rudy Giuliani to Trump advisors ripping the president in Bob Woodward's new book: Find another job 

Key Points
  • "If they said it, they should be questioning why they are there. Why don't they go get another job? That's the kind of disloyalty that leads to you leaving, not staying and undermining the president," Giuliani told CNBC in an interview.
  • Giuliani did note, however, that many of the events described in the book occurred before he joined the president's legal team.
  • Woodward's book, "Fear," which is due out Sept. 11, claims that chief of staff John Kelly called Trump an "idiot," and told colleagues that the president was "unhinged" and that "he's gone off the rails," according to The Washington Post.
Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York, speaks with reporters during the White House Sports and Fitness Day event on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, May 30, 2018.
Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump's top outside attorney in the Russia probe, has a message for administration officials who reportedly ripped the commander in chief in Bob Woodward's upcoming book: go find another job.

"If they said it, they should be questioning why they are there. Why don't they go get another job? That's the kind of disloyalty that leads to you leaving, not staying and undermining the president," Giuliani told CNBC in an interview.

Giuliani did note, however, that many of the events described in the book occurred before he joined the president's legal team. He is not a member of the White House staff.

Woodward's book, "Fear," which is due out Sept. 11, claims chief of staff John Kelly called Trump an "idiot," and told colleagues that the president was "unhinged" and that "he's gone off the rails," according to The Washington Post.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called the book "nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees, told to make the President look bad."

In a statement released by the White House, Kelly said: "The idea I ever called the President an idiot is not true."

Rudy Giuliani: Truth isn't truth
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Rudy Giuliani: Truth isn't truth

Secretary of Defense James Mattis is also quoted in the book. According to Woodward, Mattis told friends, as advisors grew frightened of the president's actions: "Secretaries of defense don't always get to choose the president they work for."

Several top officials cited in the book have already left the administration, such as former economic advisor Gary Cohn and Kelly's predecessor as chief of staff, Reince Priebus.

Read more: Read the most dramatic quotes from Bob Woodward's new tell-all book about Trump

Giuliani also tried to shed doubt on the credibility of Woodward's book during Tuesday's interview. Woodward, in a conversation with the president that was posted on The Washington Post website, vouched for the book's accuracy. "I taped people for hundreds of hours," Woodward said.

He said that since he's been working for Trump pro-bono he has not heard of Woodward gaining access to the White House. Giuliani also said that during the debriefings with his predecessor, John Dowd, he was never told about the numerous interactions that are described in the book between Trump, Dowd, Jay Sekulow and members of Robert Mueller's special counsel team.

Those meetings, according to Woodward, were to debate whether the president should sit down for an interview with Mueller as part of his larger investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russian operatives during the 2016 presidential election.

The book says that Dowd tried to keep Trump from doing an interview with the special counsel. In one exchange, he reportedly told Mueller and his deputy: "I'm not going to sit there and let him look like an idiot."

A spokeswoman for the Department of Defense declined to comment. Dowd could not be reached for comment.