Rudy Giuliani is not backing down from comments he made about not respecting Stormy Daniels because of her work in the adult film industry.
On Thursday, in interviews with both CNN and NBC News, the former mayor of New York City and current member of President Trump’s legal team, defended remarks he made about Stormy Daniels’ credibility at an event in Tel Aviv on Wednesday.
“Why would I withdraw them?” Giuliani said to NBC News. “You’re going to tell me being involved in pornography isn’t demeaning to women? I don’t know, do you have a daughter?”
When pressed by CNN’s Dana Bash about how some may find his views on the porn industry and women “antiquated,” Giuliani said feminists in his day disapproved of porn.
“If you’re a [feminist] and you support the porn industry, you should turn in your credentials,” he told Bash on Thursday.
Giuliani also doubled down on questioning Daniels’ credibility, calling her a “con artist” who just wants money.
Giuliani had initially said at an event in Tel Aviv, “I respect all human beings. I even have to respect criminals. But I’m sorry, I don’t respect a porn star the way I respect a career women or a women of substance or a woman who has great respect for herself as a women and as a person and isn’t going to sell her body for sexual exploitation.”
Following Giuliani’s initial remarks, where he demeaned Daniels’ looks and said she “has no reputation” given her line of work, he was swiftly rebuked by her attorney Michael Avenatti.
“Mr. Giuliani is a misogynist,” Avenatti said in a tweet. “His most recent comments regarding my client, who passed a lie detector test and who the American people believe, are disgusting and a disgrace.”
Mr. Giuliani is a misogynist. His most recent comments regarding my client, who passed a lie detector test and who the American people believe, are disgusting and a disgrace. His client Mr. Trump didn’t seem to have any “moral” issues with her and others back in 2006 and beyond.
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) June 6, 2018
My client @StormyDaniels should be celebrated for her courage, strength and intelligence. She is one of the most credible people I have ever met regardless of gender. Period. I would be put her character up against Mr. Giuliani’s any day of the week. #Basta
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) June 7, 2018
Others, including MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski have also condemned Giuliani’s remarks, calling him a “misogynistic fool” for his comments on Daniels during “this moment, where we are in history with women.”
"Are you kidding me? In this moment, where we are in history with women you're gonna tell us to just look at her? Are you out of your mind?"
– Mika Brzezinski responds to Giuliani's comments about Stormy Daniels
Watch. Https://t.co/DXwC2p7LB7
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) June 7, 2018
Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, filed a lawsuit in March against Trump and his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, to break a nondisclosure agreement she signed in October 2016 barring her from talking about an alleged affair with Trump a decade prior. In her suit, she alleges that Trump never signed the agreement. It was also revealed by the Wall Street Journal that Cohen paid $130,000 to Daniels prior to the election allegedly to silence her.
This week, Daniels filed another lawsuit alleging that her former lawyer Keith Davidson and Cohen worked together “in an attempt to use and manipulate Ms. Clifford in a manner designed to benefit Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump.”