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MSNBC's Chris Hayes clashed with former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani after Wednesday night's presidential debate.
Giuliani appeared on the program live from Denver and praised Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's debate performance.
Hayes asked the former mayor about Romney's position on the Bush-era tax cuts.
"Am I still correct that the Romney campaign's official position is they want to extend, indefinitely or permanently, the Bush tax cuts on the table, which would of course cut taxes for high income individuals. I don't even think that's a matter of debate, and yet Mitt Romney, himself, tonight seemed to repudiate that," Hayes said.
"Whoa, whoa, wait," Giuliani said. "If you extend the Bush tax cuts, you don't cut taxes, you keep taxes where they are. If you don't extend the Bush tax cuts, you raise taxes."
"No, they're set to expire," Hayes said. "It was your party that set them to expire, I would add. Sitting here at this desk, I didn't do that."
Giuliani described how the Bush tax cuts impact his personal taxes would and said that he would receive a big tax increase if they expired.
"Right, because you make a lot of money! That's exactly my point!" Hayes said. "Mr. Giuliani, you are one of those people who are going to see a very large tax cut, because you are, to your great credit, a high-earning individual. And of course you will see a high bounty from this tax cut. That's the question on the table."
Giuliani told Hayes to "stop the ad personam silliness." He added, "Will you let me finish my answer rather than yelling and screaming at me? Just let me finish my answer, and then you can say whatever you want to say."
The former New York City mayor pressed that Romney intends to cut taxes for everyone, not just high-income individuals.
"I believe in the Ronald Reagan approach that you should not feed the beast. Let's put the beast on a diet. Let's see if they can spend a little less money, that may force them to do actually some cutting," Giuliani said.
"Does the Department of Homeland Security and related spending through contracts on say private consulting firms like yourself, does that count as feeding the beast or not?" Hayes asked.
"Ok, I have no contract with the Department of Homeland Security. One more try at an ad personam attack, doesn't work. Never done a contract with the Department of Homeland Security...Don't get any money from the government. So you can try all those ad personam attacks all you want," Giuliani said. "Wanna try another one?"
"Well if you're inviting it," Maddow said. She then piled on, asking more questions about Romney's position on the Bush-era tax cuts.
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