Kimberly Guilfoyle now facing defamation lawsuit from donor who accused her of pay-to-play scheme

Channel: CBS News

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:01] Welcome back to the Takeout here at the

[0:03] Takeout Tavern. And a quick shout out to

[0:05] my stage crew. They do a phenomenal job

[0:07] every day, but particularly today. A lot

[0:08] of moving parts today. So many thanks to

[0:10] them. Reporter panel time. Julie Grace

[0:11] Buffki runs the sources say newsletter.

[0:14] Oriana Gonzalez, politics reporter for

[0:16] the Washington Sun. Wine, beer. Remember

[0:19] kids, for me it's always coffee because

[0:20] I got to keep my wits about me. So Julia

[0:22] Grace, talk to us about Eric Debbers and

[0:26] Kimberly Gilfoil, the former US

[0:29] ambassador to Greece.

[0:30] >> So that's been a wild ride. I mean,

[0:31] initially the Wall Street Journal broke

[0:33] that story about her essentially asking

[0:34] this donor to uh pay her credit card

[0:37] bill,000.

[0:40] This was what she was getting ready to

[0:41] go before the Senate for a confirmation

[0:43] hearing.

[0:44] >> So he's gone very public on all of this

[0:46] and really kind of just burning it all

[0:48] to the ground and he's threatening to

[0:49] release more information, including on

[0:50] JD Vance. I was getting some text

[0:52] messages last night of like let's look

[0:54] out for what's going on.

[0:55] >> He's a GOP donor. So he's in this

[0:57] circle.

[0:57] >> So he wanted to he was pushing for the

[1:00] extradition of this Pak Pakistani doctor

[1:02] and it's like if he doesn't if this

[1:04] doesn't happen and the government

[1:05] doesn't move on this I'm going to

[1:06] release more information. So I've been

[1:07] talking to some White House sources that

[1:08] are like this seems like extortion. I

[1:10] talked to some I ping the FBI on this.

[1:13] They're like we're not commenting on

[1:14] whether or not that's happening. It's

[1:16] it's a wild ride. And now he's filed a

[1:18] defamation suit against Kimberly Gil for

[1:21] because she denied the things that he

[1:22] provided text messages to substantiate.

[1:24] Do I have that right?

[1:25] >> So she came out and said these were AI,

[1:26] which it's like, all right, sure, Jan,

[1:28] but like [laughter] um I mean I guess I

[1:31] guess we'll we'll see during the

[1:32] defamation suit whether or not those

[1:34] >> We'll find out in court if it's AI.

[1:36] Oriani, you've talked to some

[1:37] Republicans, and I well, you maybe can't

[1:39] tell their names, but they're a

[1:41] shrinking part of the House Republican

[1:43] Conference that still clings to some

[1:45] slender hope that they're not going to

[1:48] lose their majority.

[1:49] >> But I I will say that the closer that

[1:51] we're getting to the election, the worse

[1:53] actually those get. I mean, I heard from

[1:55] a Republican a couple of weeks ago that

[1:57] was just essentially being like

[2:00] the campaign trail not looking good for

[2:02] them. They're realizing that the

[2:04] environment is just not great. And one

[2:06] thing that they kept telling me about

[2:07] was you should pay attention to the fact

[2:09] that Republicans are outspending

[2:10] Democrats in 2026, which is a lot

[2:13] because in 24 in the presidential,

[2:15] Democrats outspent Republicans and got

[2:18] bad results. And now we're seeing

[2:19] Republicans outspend Democrats and

[2:22] they're not looking great.

[2:23] >> And this goes to an underlying theme

[2:24] that sometimes people overlook when they

[2:26] talk about money in politics. Money can

[2:28] do several things, but it cannot erase

[2:30] an atmosphere. It cannot erase a

[2:33] negative sense of what's happened on

[2:35] your watch, Julie Grace.

[2:37] >> I mean, that is accurate. And I feel

[2:38] like we're already seeing the minority

[2:40] leader race kind of heat up because of

[2:41] uh I feel like the expectations are low

[2:43] from every Republican. I've

[2:45] >> they're going to be in the minority and

[2:46] maybe they want a new leader. But it was

[2:47] interesting. My colleague Robert Costa

[2:49] was on the road and talked to House

[2:50] Speaker Mike Johnson Saturday in

[2:53] Louisiana and he said, "I'm running."

[2:56] >> Even if we're in the minority, I'm

[2:57] running for leader. That was kind of a

[2:59] marker.

[2:59] >> So that is true. I I mean I've talked to

[3:01] a lot of Republican members that like we

[3:03] aren't Democrats. This isn't going to be

[3:04] Nancy Pelosi. So I think that's going to

[3:06] be an uphill climb for him and I think

[3:07] it might be it feels like it's going to

[3:09] be a contested battle.

[3:10] >> I think it'll be a contested battle and

[3:11] I think when minority it's so different

[3:13] than a speaker's race given that it's

[3:15] closed ballot behind closed doors.

[3:18] >> Oriana any sense of that among

[3:20] Republicans you talked to?

[3:21] >> So actually my colleague Kadia Goba had

[3:23] a story this morning that says that the

[3:24] White House so far says that they would

[3:26] support Mike Johnson for a minority

[3:28] leader. That said, unlike, you know, the

[3:31] speakers raises, we haven't seen Trump

[3:33] that, you know, focused on this, right?

[3:35] Of course, they're in the middle of a,

[3:36] you know, campaign, uh, really, we're

[3:39] getting so close to the election that I

[3:40] don't think this really has focus is on

[3:42] that. But so far, the White House has

[3:44] said they would support him. So, even if

[3:45] it's, you know, if it's you, Jim Jordan

[3:47] or Steve Scaliz that are looking for

[3:49] something like this, you so far, he

[3:52] seems to have the the the president's uh

[3:54] support. Typically, when you're the

[3:55] White House press secretary in a Trump

[3:56] administration and you go on Sean

[3:58] Hannity's program, it's a light touch.

[4:00] Not yesterday. This is Shawn with now

[4:02] former White House press secretary Katie

[4:04] Zachariah.

[4:05] >> You took the bar exam, but you didn't

[4:07] pass the bar exam. Correct.

[4:09] >> Yeah, this is Sean.

[4:12] >> Okay. Did you ever take it a second

[4:13] time?

[4:14] >> So, here. So, for background, uh, I

[4:17] graduated Pepperdine, got married in the

[4:19] same week, and we had all intent to move

[4:23] out to China. I knew I would be living

[4:26] in China, and the results of the bar

[4:28] were inconsequential, and I sat for it

[4:31] because I didn't want to have a withdraw

[4:33] status.

[4:35] >> It wasn't a super aggressive interview,

[4:37] but it was not necessarily friendly. And

[4:39] Sean Hannity talks to the president all

[4:41] the time. It felt to me as if Shawn had

[4:44] permission to be a little tough with

[4:47] Katie Zacharans. Yeah. What she would

[4:48] do.

[4:49] >> I would imagine that's the case. I mean,

[4:50] I haven't talked to Shawn, but I can't

[4:52] imagine he wasn't going to go that hard

[4:53] if that if today's outcome wasn't going

[4:55] to be what it was for pre-ordained.

[4:59] Orianna, you got 20 seconds.

[5:00] >> Yeah, it was. She's what, a half

[5:02] Scaramucci now?

[5:03] >> Yes. The Scaramucci record, I believe,

[5:05] is 11 days. Exactly. Five days. Four or

[5:08] five technically if you think about it.

[5:09] But

[5:10] >> how to count? Is it four, four and a

[5:11] half? Four and three/4ers. Is it a full

[5:13] five? I think we'll leave that to the

[5:15] beer and the wine to help us sort out.

[5:17] Remember, it's always coffee with me

[5:18] kids. Julie Grace Buffky or Anna

[5:20] Gonzalez. Cheers. Thank you very much.