Piers Morgan slams 'deranged' Rudy Giuliani as pair clash in blistering GMB row over Trump

David Child4 June 2020

Piers Morgan has slammed Donald Trump's lawyer as "deranged" after the pair became embroiled in a bitter on-air row over the US President's handling of the George Floyd protests.

The Good Morning Britain host labelled Rudy Giuliani "unhinged" after the latter lashed out at Mr Morgan for "misinterpreting on purpose" a recent tweet by the US President concerning the unrest.

Mr Trump said in the post in question, published on May 29, that "when the looting starts, the shooting starts" as protests raged throughout the US over Mr Floyd's death.

Twitter later hid the post behind a warning that it “glorifies violence” while it also emerged the specific phrase Mr Trump used appeared to have origins in the civil rights era.

Clashing over the incident on Thursday, Mr Morgan told Mr Giuliani the US President should "never have said it".

He added: “You’re so wound up in your support for Trump you can’t see the wood from the trees.”​

Mr Giuliani hit back, accusing Mr Morgan of being a "failed journalist" and saying: “You misinterpreted him. You’re misinterpreting him on purpose.

“The question is did he know that came from some racist 30 years ago?

“Well, he didn’t know that."

The two men then began shouting over each other, with Mr Morgan calling Mr Giuliani "mad" and "unhinged" over his "abusive" comments, and the latter branding the GMB host a "disgrace" and a "liar".

Mr Giuliani, a once-popular Mayor of New York City, has repeatedly been marred in controversy in recent times amid revelations about his role in the Ukraine extortion scandal that saw Mr Trump impeached.

Mr Morgan added: "When I used to interview you, you were an intelligent, reasonable man and you’ve gone completely mad and you sound abusive."

Mr Guiliani meanwhile pushed back saying: "Everyone in America knows you’re a failed journalist, so stop trying to recreate your career."

George Floyd protesters 'take the knee'

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Footage of the blazing row was subsequently circulated widely on social media, with several Twitter users expressing astonishment over the dramatic scenes.

One said: "Have never seen such a deranged TV interview as Rudy Giuliani. The profanities, the uncouth behaviour, the rantings of a lunatic."

Another took a different view: "How wonderful to hear Piers Morgan get a taste of his own medicine. Rudy didn’t lose the plot though, he just wasn’t going to let mad man Piers speak over him and have it all his own way."

Mr Morgan, for his part, simply commented: "Well that went well".

The incident came after continued protests against Mr Floyd's death rocked several US cities overnight on Wednesday.

Mr Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died in custody last week in Minneapolis after a white police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes.

Former Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin has had his murder charge upscaled from third-degree to the more severe second-degree over the incident, while three others have now been charged with aiding and abetting the killing.

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