From the October 2 edition of ABC’s This Week:
On This Week, Rudy Giuliani Calls Trump An “Absolute Genius” For Avoiding Taxes
Giuliani: “He Would Have Been A Fool Not To Take Advantage” Of Tax Code
Written by Media Matters Staff
Published
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS (HOST): So what’s your response to this story?
RUDY GIULIANI: My response is, he's genius. I mean the reality is --
STEPHANOPOULOS: A genius?
GIULIANI: Absolute genius. The man, in The Art of the Deal this is described, first of all we are talking about 26 years ago, perfectly legal. We should get that straight immediately. It's a perfectly legal application of the tax code and he would have been a fool not to take advantage of it. Not only that, but he would have probably breached his fiduciary duty to his investors, to his business. You have an obligation when you run a business to maximize the profits and if there is a tax law that says I can deduct this, you deduct it. If you fail to deduct it, people can sue you. Your investors can sue you.
STEPHANOPOULOS: You say that he is a genius. Here is what Robby Mook from the Clinton campaign says. He says it reveals the colossal nature of Donald Trump's past business failures. He apparently got to avoid paying taxes for nearly two decades while tens of millions of working families paid theirs.
GIULIANI: Okay, well first of all that's not clear that it’s a -- in other words, what was the loss, $1.8 million?
STEPHANOPOULOS: $916 million.
GIULIANI: $916 million. Well, Last year for example he made $625 million. So if he had one year in which he made $1 billion, he would have wiped it out the last [inaudible] one year. So it's unlikely that it carried forward with 18 years. That is the amount of income he was making. Second, every great man has had failures and The Art of the Deal, he explains it. Churchill was thrown out of office twice. Steve Jobs was fired from Apple and had nothing. The reality is, this man, 26 years ago, had some failures and then he built an empire. I would like that working for me for the United States. This a genius that had to take advantage of legal remedies that can help your company survive and grow. I want a man who is genius for figuring out how to take this country, moving in the wrong direction, where we have had a basically jobless recovery, where we’ve had a growth of less than 2 percent for two years, that is pathetic. Don't you think a man who has this kind of economic genius is a lot better for the United States than a woman and the only thing she has ever produced is a lot of work for the FBI check out her emails?
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Previously:
Fox Invites Rudy Giuliani To Defend Trump's Stop And Frisk Proposal
On CNN, Rudy Giuliani Refuses To Say That Trump Should Apologize For His Birther Comments