Despite Rudy Giuliani’s recent dramatic pronouncements about international affairs, Donald Trump’s new attorney does not represent the U.S. when it comes to policy or speak for the president on world issues, the State Department emphasized Monday.
“He speaks for himself and not on behalf of the administration on foreign policy,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told The Associated Press.
Giuliani boasted on “Fox & Friends” last Thursday that “we” have North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “impressed enough to be releasing three prisoners today.” As of Monday evening, there had been no announcement by the White House concerning any such release, nor had the prisoners been freed.
Giuliani backtracked Saturday, telling reporters he had no idea what the prisoners’ status was, adding, “I’m reading the newspapers like you are.” He said, “The less said about it right now, the better.”
He also said on Saturday that he and Trump were “committed to regime change” in Iran, Politico reported. It’s “the only way to peace in the Middle East” and “more important than an Israeli-Palestinian deal,” Giuliani told reporters after a speech in Washington hosted by the Organization of Iranian-American Communities.
Trump is considering withdrawing from the Iranian nuclear pact but has not publicly called for the overthrow of the Iranian government.
Giuliani has been straying so far into State Department territory that a reporter asked White House press secretary Sarah Sanders last week if he had been tasked with a wider role to “talk about things like foreign policy, as he did.” She replied, “Not that I’m aware of.”
Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif., a member of the House Armed Services Committee, called Giuliani a “loose cannon rolling around the Oval Office with another loose cannon, namely the president.”
Giuliani “really needs to stay out of the North Korea issue. It’s very sensitive,” Garamendi said on MSNBC on Sunday. “Who knows what might happen from some comment from Giuliani?”
