Yesterday a group of 50 GOP national security officials issued a letter which said Donald Trump “lacks the character, values and experience” to be president. Trump responded to the letter Tuesday morning on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/762981606755856384

Politico reports that Trump expanded on this message in an appearance on Fox Business:

“Well I respond by saying that I wasn’t using any of them and they would have loved to have been involved with the campaign but I wasn’t using, I had no interest using [them]” Trump told Fox Business Network. “Look where the country is now look where country is now on national policy, look where we are on defense, look at the mess we’re in.”

Trump surrogate Rudy Giuliani also defended Trump on Fox and Friends Tuesday morning. Asked about the 50 “national security experts” who signed the letter, Giuliani replied, “Well, some of them are friends of mine; one or two of them were employees of mine when I was Unites States attorney.” He continued, “I believe it makes Donald Trump’s candidacy really clear. He’s running against the Washington insiders. You just heard from all the Washington insiders.

“These are all the people who have been running policy for the last 8, 10 years, 12 years and the American people have delivered a judgment on that. They say America is headed in the wrong direction. These are the people who headed it in the wrong direction.”

Giuliani said that unlike previous candidates Mitt Romney and John McCain, “Trump is not part of the club. Thank God!” He then clarified, “He’s not part of the Washington club.”

Giuliani concluded his response with a question, “Do you want the continuation of government as we’ve known it for the last, really for the last 10 to 15 years…or do we want to take the ship of state and turn it around and turn it toward opportunity, toward growth and toward a much tougher stance on Islamic terrorism than all these people have taken?”

Giuliani’s response begins around 2:30 in this clip.