‘A Level Of Pants-Sh***ing Panic Rarely Seen On National Television’: Pundits Sound Off After Giuliani’s Confusing Cuomo Interview

Media pundits and others fired off on Twitter after Rudy Giuliani contradicted himself Thursday evening when CNN’s Chris Cuomo pressed him on whether he personally asked Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden.

In an interview that quickly devolved into a series of arguments and insults, Cuomo asked Giuliani if he asked Ukraine to look into Biden. Giuliani said he did not. But moments later, Giuliani said “of course” he asked Ukraine to look into Biden, contradicting his original claim.

The hashtag “#RudyGiulianiMeltdown” began trending on Twitter as media pundits and others expressed confusion over Thursday evening’s interview. (RELATED: Reports Identify The Country At Center Of Mysterious Trump Whistleblower Complaint)

“There’s no better expression of the hell that is CNN’s nighttime reality TV lineup than Chris Cuomo noting at the beginning of this clip that his Giuliani interview had been going for 28 MINUTES,” Tom Gara, an opinion editor for BuzzFeed News, tweeted.

Mika Brzezinksi, co-host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” wondered if Giuliani was drunk during his CNN interview.

“You guys were talking about the madness and, sort of, I don’t even know if there’s inebriation here. What is going on?” Brzezinksi asked Friday morning.

Co-host Joe Scarborough suggested this was “too far,” and Brzezinksi argued that it wasn’t too far. The show played the clip to “let the viewers decide,” Brzezinski said.

“Did you ask the Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden?” Cuomo asked.

“No, actually I didn’t. I asked the Ukraine to investigate the allegations that there was interference in the election of 2016 by the Ukrainians for the benefit of Hillary Clinton … the only thing I asked about Joe Biden is to get to the bottom of how it was that Lutsenko, who was appointed, dismissed the case against AntAC.”

“So, you did ask Ukraine to look into Joe Biden,” Cuomo replied.

“Of course I did,” Giuliani said.

Josh Marshall, editor and publisher of Talking Points Memo, clipped part of the interview and wrote, “HOLY SHIT this is wild!”

“Trump’s lawyer, on TV, admitting he asked the leaders of a foreign government to investigate Trump’s political rival,” Judd Legum, former editor-in-chief for ThinkProgress, wrote.

National security lawyer Bradley P. Moss added his thoughts, too, reminding Twitter that Giuliani “was once a real lawyer.”

“Who failed to tell Rudy Giuliani that he doesn’t have to go on television?” MSNBC’s David Gura asked.

Laura Basset, a politics reporter, tweeted “My boy Rudy is not ok.”