NEW YORK — (CNN) A bemused Rudy Giuliani said he thinks Donald Trump should participate in this week’s Republican presidential debate on Fox News, but laughed, “Gosh, I thought he made some bad moves before that turned out to be good ones.”
Appearing on CNN’s “New Day” Wednesday morning, the former New York City mayor told CNN’s Chris Cuomo that he thought Trump’s decision to boycott the debate was unwise, but observed that Trump has repeatedly defied political convention all throughout the 2016 election so far without consequence.
“My advice for Donald would be to debate — I never turn down a debate — and not only that, I think the last couple he won,” Giuliani said. “And some of them, as he went along, more convincingly than others.”
“I don’t know why he doesn’t want to go into the debate,” he chuckled.
Giuliani suggested that Trump could use debate controversy to display his ability to listen and resolve conflict, saying Trump should announce his decision to participate in the debate after consulting with advisers.
“Maybe you say something like, ‘I can take advice,’” Giuliani explained. “Isn’t that another question about him? One of the questions is, ‘is he flexible enough, can he take advice?’ — take advice.”
“Surprise them, show up, and from my point of view, beat the heck out of them,” he said.
But Giuliani also said that Trump’s decision to skip was unlikely to hurt him in the Republican primary.
“[Voters] hold him to a different standard,” Giuliani noted. “It’s that whole business background, that entertainment background, the reality TV background — the fact that they seem him as a guy that’s tough and stands up, and they just interpret it differently.”
And Giuliani intimated that Trump was passing up a big opportunity to cement his lead in the nominating contest at a critical juncture in the primary. “There are a lot of Republicans who are on the bubble right now, ready to support him — I mean big-time Republicans,” Giuliani explained.
“This guy has got crossover appeal that most Republicans don’t have.”
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