Giuliani on Meet the Press: "I Made a Mistake"

Tim Russert has invited all the presidential candidates to appear on Meet the Press, and yesterday former Mayor Rudy Giuliani appeared. We imagine many New Yorkers watching the program gnashed their teeth and/or swore at the TV (we happened to do both), as Giuliani tried to answer questions ranging from the straightforward (Giuliani's Iowa poll numbers, Russert asked, "Fifth place, is that a problem?") to the interesting (Russert on Giuliani's consulting business: "A Las Vegas developer that you worked with who had a close partnership with Hong Kong billionaire who was close to Kim Jong-Il. These are all accusations being made in a very serious way about your business.").

The highlight might have been the questions about disgraced former Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik and security details to then-girlfriend, now-wife Judi Nathan. Here's Giuliani's initial response to the Kerik question:

First of all, this is very, you know, this is a very tragic and terrible situation for everybody. Now, the reality is I made a mistake. I made a mistake in not vetting him carefully enough. And it’s my responsibility; I should have. And I’ve appointed hundreds, thousands of people; to that level, probably hundreds of people, and I have made few mistakes. Most of them have been correct, most of them have been outstanding people. Most of them have been outstanding enough to get exceptional results with their services—reducing crime or reducing welfare, turning around the city of New York, prosecuting organized crime, prosecuting white collar crime. So I think my judgment on appointments turns out to almost always be very good, with, unfortunately, some mistakes that I’ve made. This is one of them, and I’m really sorry for it and have, and have learned from it.

Russert did a pretty good job hammering away about Kerik, asking about claims that Giuliani was briefed about Kerik's checkered relationships, how Kerik used a city-paid apartment for an affair with Judith Reagan, how Giuilani still supported Kerik for the Homeland Security position. Russert did ask about the security details for Judi Nathan, but didn't go as hard as he could have:

MR. RUSSERT: But this, this was when, this was when no one knew she was your girlfriend. This was before September 11th, 2001. There were—no one knew who she was.

MR. GIULIANI: They were—well, first of all, that isn’t correct. Secondly, these were all based upon threat assessments made by the New York City Police Department and all based on their analysis of what was necessary to protect her life, my life, other people’s lives.

MR. RUSSERT: Before it was known that you were even dating her, there were threats against her?

MR. GIULIANI: The threats were—the threats were after. The threats were after.

MR. RUSSERT: But this protection was...

MR. GIULIANI: No it wasn’t. You got it all—no, it wasn’t.

MR. RUSSERT: Bernard Kerik, police commissioner, said there was no protection given before December 2000, and that is not a true statement.

MR. GIULIANI: No, but, Tim, our, our relationship became public in May of 2000. So when he said before 2000 is a whole big portion of 2000 where our relationship was public, there were threats, they had to be responded to. The police department did every single thing that was done for Judith, or for me, or for anybody else close to me, was based upon threat assessments made by other people who are professionals here, and they’ve made it very clear that that, that that’s the case. And this is beyond any doubt the way it was done.

However, Brendan Nyhan observes that most of Russert's questions were about ethics and honesty, versus issues like Iraq and other candidates. A "neutral" GOP consultant told the Daily News, "He's held up in the polls a lot longer than anyone thought, but the baggage is finally starting to catch up with him."

Photograph of Giuliani leaving the NBC studios by Jose Luis Magana/AP