Rudy Giuliani Calls Out CNN Anchor: 'Am I Debating The President's Campaign?

Former New York mayor and Romney campaign surrogate Rudy Giuliani isn't known to mince words, or take criticism lightly, as CNN's Soledad O'Brien found out today.

Giuliani, who had been invited on the show to discuss the state of the race, and the aftermath of the Vice Presidential debate, found himself tangling with both another guest and with O'Brien herself as he attempted to explain the Romney campaign's take on both issues.

“There’s plenty to criticize,” said Giuliani. “I mean, the cover-up of Benghazi is startling.”

Guest Richard Socarides tried to cut in, leading to the first of Giuliani's sharp responses.

“Can I finish?,” he asked. “Can I finish my statement before you get all upset? I mean, the reality is he said we didn’t know they were asking for more security. Where the heck was he? I mean, they were demanding more security. They were begging for more security. Susan Rice goes on television four days later — I was on CNN with her that morning — and says it was a spontaneous demonstration. I knew it wasn’t. I knew it wasn’t; I’m not part of the administration. I knew it wasn’t the day after. And she had to know it wasn’t. They were saying it wasn’t. The National Security adviser said it was a terrorist plot.”

"He actually didn’t say that,” O’Brien hastily cut in. “The actual verbatim of what he said, he did not say it was something other than that. But it was mentioned, but he did not specifically say this was due to a movie." She then offered to pull the transcripts to prove it.

Giuliani looked around incredulously. “Man, the defensive — Am I debating with the President’s campaign?" he chuckled. "I mean, the defense of the President is overwhelming."

O'Brien kept pointing out the issue of exact words, but Giuliani simply responded that because of his political affiliation, he doesn't have the luxury of giving the president the benefit of a doubt.

You can watch the tense part via CNN below:

Mediaite has the entire segment below: