How Rudy Giuliani Turned Into Trump's Clown

[DonViejo]

September 3, 2018 at 8:01 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 21 Comments

Jeffrey Toobin: “Since joining Trump’s team, Giuliani has greeted every new development as a vindication, even when he’s had to bend and warp the evidence in front of him. Like Trump, he characterizes the Mueller probe as a ‘witch hunt’ and the prosecutors as ‘thugs.’ He has, in effect, become the legal auxiliary to Trump’s Twitter feed, peddling the same chaotic mixture of non sequiturs, exaggerations, half-truths, and falsehoods. Giuliani, like the President, is not seeking converts but comforting the converted.”

“This has come at considerable cost to his reputation. As a prosecutor, Giuliani was the sheriff of Wall Street and the bane of organized crime. As mayor, he was the law-and-order leader who kicked ‘squeegee men’ off the streets of New York. Now he’s a talking head spouting nonsense on cable news. But this version of Giuliani isn’t new; Trump has merely tapped into tendencies that have been evident all along.”

“Trump learned about law and politics from his mentor Roy Cohn, the notorious sidekick to Joseph McCarthy who, as a lawyer in New York, became a legendary brawler and used the media to bash adversaries. In the early months of his Presidency, as Mueller’s investigation was getting under way, Trump is said to have raged, ‘Where’s my Roy Cohn?’ In Giuliani, the President has found him.”

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https://politicalwire.com/2018/09/03/how-giuliani-turned-into-trumps-clown/

[PJMcK]

1. Giuliani has always been a clown

Not all of us New Yorkers thought he was a good mayor. His use of the police was nearly fascist and his headline-grabbing behavior was often as embarrassing as was his personal life.

Following the 9/11 attacks, he did rally the city and country but then he asked the city to suspend the mayoral election and let him continue in office for an unspecified amount of time. Giuliani was term-limited but felt that "he alone could fix" the city following the terrorism. Thankfully, he was rebuffed.

Today, he's become unhinged. There's a fascinating interview with his soon-to-be ex-wife in New York magazine where she says he's changed into someone she doesn't even recognize. Everything Trump touches dies.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/08/judith-giuliani-rudy-giuliani-divorce.html

[True Blue American]

10. My opinion o Rudy

Was formed when he announced his divorce on the street, then proceeded to move his girl friend into the mansion..

So, no,I do not feel sorry for Judith either. She knew what she was getting.

[calimary]

11. Hey, he can kill his credibility all day, for all I care.

Good!

[rickford66]

2. He wants the AG position so bad.

[luvtheGWN]

3. How did someone who spent his life as a public servant

accumulate a worth of $45M? What am I missing here?

[USALiberal]

4. Kick

[Shoonra]

5. It is sort of painful .....

As a former New Yorker, who remembers Giuliani as an aggressive crime-fighting prosecutor, and then as the mayor who cleaned up Times Square, as someone who generated respect if not affection, it's painful to see him reduced to a rodeo clown for Trump, actually compelled to talk nonsense and act obtuse in the face of growing scandals. It's something like seeing a beloved relative turn senile.

[RainCaster]

7. Not senility, alcohol

Drooly drinks like a fish according to friends, acquaintances, etc.

[DinahMoeHum]

6. His own children have basically dis-owned him. . .

. . .and that's probably the worst thing that can happen to a guy like him.

[DeeDeeNY]

8. His son has a position in the Trump administration

Sounds like a chip off the old block.

[highplainsdem]

9. Yashar Ali tweet pointing out Trump will try using executive privilege to block Mueller report:

Link to tweet

Per @JeffreyToobin, Giuliani says that Trump will likely attempt to block a Rosenstein from releasing parts of Mueller’s report based on executive privilege. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/09/10/how-rudy-giuliani-turned-into-trumps-clown …

Even if the question of Presidential testimony is resolved, Giuliani’s attacks on the investigation are likely to continue. Mueller will file a concluding report with Rod Rosenstein, the Deputy Attorney General, at the end of the investigation, and, in theory, Rosenstein has the option of releasing the report to Congress and to the public. But Giuliani pointed out a little-known aspect of the agreement that Trump’s original legal team struck with Mueller: the White House reserved the right to object to the public disclosure of information that might be covered by executive privilege. I asked Giuliani if he thought the White House would raise objections. “I’m sure we will,” he said, adding that the President would make the final call. In other words, the conclusion of the special counsel’s investigation could be the beginning of a contentious fight over whether Rosenstein is allowed to release a complete version of Mueller’s report.

Emphasis added by Yashar Ali in his tweet.

[Orsino]

12. I think Rudy's primary utility is not the conversion or shepherding of the masses...

...but instead is the comforting of the president. Rudy's face, regularly televised spouting talking points pleasing to Trump may be what he was really hired for.