Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani is refusing to answer questions about the woman who says she was encouraged to lie about her affair with Giuliani’s police commissioner in order to protect Giulani’s presidential prospects.

Judith Regan, who had an affair with former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, has filed a $100 million lawsuit against her former employer — NewsCorp — saying the company’s executives urged her to lie to federal investigators and withhold certain documents about Kerik because it would hurt Giuliani.

During a campaign stop in Council Bluffs, Giuliani said he would not respond to the story, calling it a "gossip column" item. During an interview Tuesday afternoon on KFAB Radio in Omaha — before news of the lawsuit broke — Giuliani seemed to be trying to distance himself from the campaign controversies.

"The reality is that one of the nice things about Iowa — get away from, like, the press, sometimes the press diversions that we’re talking about — the people ask you good questions," Giuliani said. "I have I don’t think from the people in Iowa I’ve ever been asked what I would consider to be kind of an irrelevant question. Some of them are tough and some I disagree with and some disagree with me, but they’re really right on target as far as the big issues are concerned."

KFAB talk show host Tom Becka closed his phone interview with Giuliani by asking the candidate if he was "having fun" on the campaign trail.

"Even the diversions we’re talking about that get you a little bit, you know, you kind of laugh at them and say, ‘Oh gosh, that’s what the process is like,’" Giuliani said. "And you know maybe when you’ve been through so many things you gain perspective and you don’t take any of this stuff too seriously."

Giuliani will make a campaign stop in Rock Rapids later this afternoon.

Tom Becka from KFAB in Omaha contributed to this report.

 

AUDIO: Henderson report (mp3 runs 1 min)