Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani has demanded an apology during an explosive, televised interview with Fox Business after taking exception to a comparison between him and Christopher Steele.
The advisor to the President appeared on the Fox network to discuss his allegations against Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.
Giuliani, 76, has actively pursued claims of corruption against the Bidens, travelling to Ukraine in 2019 to search for evidence involving the energy company, Burisma. He purports that Hunter has attempted to cash in on his father's name overseas, while Biden profited from his son's business dealings - the latter remains unsubstantiated.
The former Mayor of New York had provided material allegedly taken from Hunter Biden's laptop to the New York Post, the outlet that covered the allegations in a recent story. On October 14, the New York Post claimed it had obtained foreign government emails from Hunter's laptop, allegedly showing he had helped to arrange a meeting between his father while he was Vice President and an executive at the Ukrainian energy company.
During the interview, Fox Business host and political commentator Lisa Kennedy Montgomery, known as Kennedy, suggested there were similarities between Giuliani's efforts to unearth damaging information about the Bidens and the actions of British former intelligence officer Christopher Steele.
Steele was tasked with conducting opposition research on then-presidential candidate Trump during the 2016 campaign, authoring a dossier based on anonymous sources that made a number of claims regarding Trump's ties to Russia.
"Some can say that you were acting like Christopher Steele, that you were abstracting information," Kennedy suggested.
Giuliani did not appreciate the comparison, launching into a tirade against the host.
"You've got to be kidding me. I was acting like Christopher Steele?" Giuliani fired back.
"You better apologise for that. I mean, I've been a United States attorney, associate attorney general, Mayor of New York City and a member of the bar for 50 years. I've never been accused of anything, and you're accusing me of being Christopher Steele? That's outrageous that you would do that based on nothing - similar to a crook?"
"I'm accusing you of acting in a capacity similar to Christopher Steele, and that you were going back and forth between Ukraine and the United States," Kennedy responded.
"What you're saying is an outrageous defamation of me, of my reputation," Giuliani shot back. "Every single thing is here, and I want you to look at it and then apologise to me.
"I told you there are underage girls there, there are. I told you there are documents that show that [Biden's] getting 10 percent, there are. There are documents that show that he's getting half of what Hunter gets, there are... I want you to apologise to me because you defamed me, and that's outrageous because you have no basis for that.
"I came on your show in good faith to give you evidence that is being withheld from the American people, and I get defamed."
Kennedy made an attempt to press on, but in a move similar to Trump's abrupt departure from an interview with 60 Minutes last week, Giuliani interrupted: "I think our interview is now over."
"This may be the last time we'll be on camera because I don't let people call me Christopher Steele," he continued. "You're asserting that I'm a criminal."
Kennedy protested that they had yet to cover last week's Borat scandal, which saw Giuliani set up for the upcoming sequel - Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan - in a scene that appeared to show the lawyer with his hand down his pants in the presence of a young female actress, posing as a far-right journalist.
He has vehemently denied any inappropriate behaviour took place, calling the clip a "complete fabrication".
The interview has won Kennedy few fans among Trump supporters, the broadcaster later tweeting: "So what could have angry viewers calling me 'traitor', 'loser' and 'literally a piece of shiii'? My interview with @RudyGiuliani, of course!"
