O’Brien to Giuliani: “Stop putting words in my mouth;” interviews him about U.S. Consulate attack in Libya

CNN Anchor Soledad O’Brien interviews former Mayor Rudy Giuliani about whether or not he still thinks that the administration was involved in a cover-up, regarding the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya. She then points out that ABC News Political Contributor Matthew Dowd said that it took President George W. Bush years to correct the weapons of mass destruction argument that originally justified the invasion Iraq. O’Brien asks former Mayor Rudy Giuliani if it is unfair to expect answers about what happened in Libya so soon.

Giuliani asks, “So, we’re going to blame this on Bush, too?”

O’Brien says, “You’ve got to stop putting words in my mouth, sir. Seriously, hang on. Let me finish. Because every time I ask you a question –”

Giuliani says, “Well, I want to answer the question.”

O’Brien says, “And let me finish my point. Every time I ask you a question you like to push back as if somehow the question that’s being posed to you is unfair. It’s not. I’m a journalist. You said some things. I’m trying to get some accurate responses from you. You are welcome to answer. Go ahead.”

Later in the interview, when O’Brien re-asks the original question and clarifies that Matthew Dowd was not indicating President Bush was to blame for what happened in Libya, Giuliani responds, “[Matthew Dowd] has a point about some parts of this incident, he does not have a point about the part of the incident that refers to what was the President’s knowledge, did the President take steps to protect our Ambassador and the other people there, didn’t he take steps to do that, and why wasn’t that information made available for a month, a month and a half. Those are very valid points that do not take five years to figure out. They take about a couple of minutes to figure out.”

Starting Point with Soledad O’Brien airs weekday mornings from 7-9a ET on CNN.