In a segment from Anderson Cooper’s show last night, Arianna Huffington calls Rudy out for distoring Ron Paul’s position and using 9/11 for cheap political theatre:

COOPER: Arianna, let’s start with you.

One of last night’s probably more memorable moments came after Congressman Ron Paul argued that 9/11 occurred because the U.S. had been bombing Iraq for years.

Giuliani jumped all over Paul with this response. Let’s listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDOLPH GIULIANI (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That’s really an extraordinary statement. That’s an extraordinary statement, as someone who lived through the attack of September 11, that we invited the attack, because we were attacking Iraq. I don’t think I have ever heard that before, and I have heard some pretty absurd explanations for September 11.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Arianna, this certainly played to — to Giuliani’s perceived strength.

ARIANNA HUFFINGTON, CO-FOUNDER, HUFFINGTONPOST.COM: But, also, you know, Giuliani clearly misinterpreted, deliberately, what Ron Paul said.

As Ron Paul tried to explain later, he was talking about blowback. In fact, Giuliani immediately evoked his having been there for 9/11. And this has been, of course, a theme throughout the debate. I mean, there’s also a theme, when torture was involved, when Brit Hume asked whether Giuliani would support enhanced interrogation techniques, as he called them, and, immediately, Giuliani evoked 9/11 to justify torture, including, specifically, water-boarding.

COOPER: You think he’s using 9/11? (CROSSTALK)

HUFFINGTON: … was pretty sad.

COOPER: You say he’s using it?

HUFFINGTON: He’s using it and using it and using it.

[Emphasis added]

Later in the segment “Republican Strategist” Ed Rollins even admitted the distortion when he said: “I think Congressman Paul may have been misinterpreted last night.”