US Presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign reportedly contacted TV stations urging them not to book Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani for interviews, because he smears their candidate, Fox News reported Sunday.
According to the interview, the campaign sent a memo drafted by aides Kate Bedingfield and Anita Dunn, which voiced “grave concern that [US TV Channels] continue to book Rudy Giuliani on your air to spread false, debunked conspiracy theories on behalf of Donald Trump.”
"While you often fact check his statements in real time during your discussions, that is no longer enough. By giving him your air time, you are allowing him to introduce increasingly unhinged, unfounded and desperate lies into the national conversation,” the memo, sent to NBC News, CBS News, Fox News and CNN, reportedly said.
The memo asked the networks that if they continue to book Giuliani to provide an equal amount of time to a representative of the Biden campaign. The memo underscored that Giuliani is not a public official, but a personal advisor and lawyer to Trump.
Hours earlier before the memo was released, Giuliani was on several TV shows suggesting to viewers that Joe Biden’s corruption has been hiding in plain sight for months unnoticed by the media.
In particular, Biden admitted on camera that he previously pressed former Ukrainian President Poroshenko into firing then-prosecutor general Viktor Shokin, directly threatening to cut $1 billion in US military aid if Shokin was not dumped.
“I said, I’m telling you, you’re not getting the billion dollars. I said, you’re not getting the billion. […] I looked at them and said: I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money,” Biden says on a video recorded during a meeting two years after his departure from office.
"Well, son of a b***h, he got fired," Biden said, laughing.
MUST WATCH: Here's Joe Biden in 2018 bragging about using his power to hold up $1 BILLION in U.S. loans unless Ukraine fired the prosecutor investigating Burisma – a corrupt Ukrainian oil company paying his son $50,000 a month.
— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) September 25, 2019
Biden needs to explain his conflict of interest! pic.twitter.com/bDhaKjFNZN
Democrats are accusing Trump of doing the same thing with Ukraine President Zelensky, accusing Trump of requesting that Zelensky probe Biden and his son. Democrats speculate that Trump withheld military aid to Ukraine as leverage against Zelensky. Unlike Biden’s video confession, the transcript appears to contain no direct threats which could be interpreted as a ‘quid pro quo’ demand for favors.
Giuliani reminded ABC News that there is an affidavit by Shokin published online six months ago that stated that Biden’s son Hunter was under investigation in Ukraine at the time that Shokin was fired.
“I have an affidavit here that's been online for six months that nobody bothered to read from the gentleman who was fired, Viktor Shokin, the so-called corrupt prosecutor," Giuliani said. "The Biden people say that he wasn't investigating Hunter Biden at the time. He says under oath that he was."
Giuliani speculated that, should Biden’s lawyers post similar affidavits, they would remain equally unnoticed by the media and investigators.
Giuliani recalled another case in which Hunter Biden allegedly took $1.5 million from Chinese representatives during Biden’s trip to China in 2013.
"There's evidence that they got $1 billion directly from China, specific date, 12 days after they returned from a trip to China," Giuliani asserted. "There's evidence that another $500 million went in, and there are three partners."
