Rudy Giuliani on Obama's SOTU Address: "He's got to be willing to make concessions"

One evening removed from President Barack Obama's fifth State of the Union address, on Wednesday Piers Morgan invited Rudy Giuliani to join him for a live interview as he encouraged the former Republican presidential candidate to offer his perspective on a speech that's been heavily poured over in the past 24 hours since it was first delivered.

As gun control is an issue that's been covered extensively on "Piers Morgan Live," the host found it relevant to suggest that Obama's address had been conspicuously light on the topic:

"This is a man, who promised the families of Newtown, 'as I'm your president,' – he's been down there several times – 'I am your president, I will get action on gun control,'" described the primetime host. "Last night, this frankly, I thought was pretty disgraceful, to have two paragraphs, almost dismissing any efforts really?"

According to Giuliani, if the president is committed to proceeding with legislation, even in the face of congressional resistance as he suggested Tuesday night, he's going to be forced to employ the type of give-and-take politicking he's been reluctant to engage in historically:

"If he wants to do gun control, he's got to be willing to make concessions to the Republicans on things that they want," insisted 2001's "Time" Person of the Year. "As a president, you have to be willing to say, 'this is my priority. I'm going to go for that. Then I have to give away three or four other things. But I have to give away some things that my constituents might not like, my base might not like in order to get it.' He doesn't seem to be able to do that."

Seated across from the host in his studio, the former mayor of New York City summarized the challenges of political deal-making, an "art form" in which both Morgan and Giuliani find the president to be severely deficient:

"Your base is going to get angry at you for some of the things you surrender," said Giuliani. "But you make a decision, 'this is more important to me.'"

Watch the clip for more of Morgan's interview with Rudy Giuliani, and for the next edition of "Piers Morgan Live," watch CNN every night at 9.
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