'#Rudygiulianimeltdown' Trends After Heated Exchange with CNN's Chris Cuomo In Which He Contradicted Himself

'#Rudygiulianimeltdown' trended on Twitter on Friday after President Donald Trump's attorney said that he asked Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and engaged in a heated exchange with CNN anchor Chris Cuomo the night before.
The former New York mayor appeared on CNN Thursday after The Washington Post reported that an intelligence official had levied a whistleblower complaint against the president because Trump made a "promise" to a foreign leader. After breaking the story, the Post subsequently reported that the complaint involved Ukraine. Trump spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky two-and-a-half weeks prior to the complaint being filed, the Post reported.

Trump has sought to discredit reporting on the whistleblower complaint.

"Virtually anytime I speak on the phone to a foreign leader, I understand that there may be many people listening from various U.S. agencies, not to mention those from the other country itself. No problem!" he tweeted on Thursday. "Knowing all of this, is anybody dumb enough to believe that I would say something inappropriate with a foreign leader while on such a potentially "heavily populated" call. I would only do what is right anyway, and only do good for the USA!"

After Cuomo noted recent developments in the whistleblower case, Giuliani responded heatedly.

"I found out this incredible story about Joe Biden, that he bribed the president of the Ukraine in order to fire a prosecutor who was investigating his son," he said during his comments.

After some back-and-forth argument between Cuomo and the New York mayor, the CNN host asked whether Giuliani had requested Ukraine look into Biden.

"No, actually I didn't. I asked Ukraine to investigate the allegations that there was interference in the election of 2016 by the Ukrainians for the benefit of Hillary Clinton," Giuliani said.

"You never asked anything about Hunter Biden? You never asked anything about Joe Biden and the prosecutor?" Cuomo countered.

"The only thing I asked about Joe Biden is to get to the bottom of how it was that [Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy] Lutsenko, who was appointed, missed the case against—" Giuliani replied.

"So you did ask the Ukraine to look into Joe Biden?" interrupted Cuomo.

"Of course I did!" Giuliani said.

"You just said you didn't!" said Cuomo.

"No, I didn't ask him to look into Joe Biden, I asked them to look into the allegations that were related to my client which were tangentially involved Joe Biden in a massive bribery scam," Giuliani said.

The exchange continued on, becoming increasingly bitter toward the end of the segment. The vitriolic nature of the conversation, which included a tense back-and- forth at the end, was widely mocked on Twitter.

The tense cable appearances of figures close to Trump, including Giuliani, have previously elicited testy debates and strange interactions. But they have also prompted questions about who should be allowed as guests. In March, Cuomo and Don Lemon, another CNN host, debated whether White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway should be permitted to appear as a guest.

"For me, it feels beneath the dignity of this network to have someone on who just constantly lies and misconstrues things," Lemon said during the discussion.