What happened to Rudy Giuliani? It's a long story

[tulipsandroses]

I'm happy to see someone write this article. As a former NYer, I had no respect for Giuliani.

I did not see what people were so enamored about after 9/11. That was a slam dunk for any mayor.

His tenure as mayor prior to that was frustrating for many.

[link:https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/02/opinions/rudy-giuliani-biden-philp/index.html|

What happened to Rudy Giuliani? It's a long story

(CNN)Joe Biden's presidential campaign recently asked TV networks to stop booking Rudy Giuliani as a guest. Good luck with that.

The Rudy Show is a hot ticket. It's a mesmerizing, wild-eyed performance that invites an inevitable question: What happened to Rudy? The truth is, nothing happened. The Rudy we see today, with his showstopping mix of conviction and incoherence, is the same Rudy we've always had. The only thing new is his predicament.


Now think about the fact that Giuliani happily went after squeegee men ( for the unfamiliar, guys that come up to your car asking to clean your windshield for a small fee, think they used to ask for $1 back then) Many were homeless.

Yet as State atty and then mayor - under his watch, Trump committed major crimes. The America's mayor is complete bullshit!

[BigmanPigman]

1. A lot of New Yorkers hated him for being so heavy handed

"cleaning the city up". Sex And The City made a few nasty remarkd about him.

[Norbert]

2. As an outsider who wasn't aware of the particulars of NYC governance...

I looked for unity and leadership in the wake of the 911 attacks. In came Rudy and at that tragic moment I was good with that. In what followed, my misplaced trust of that time hid what a complete and utter turd Rudy is.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. An anecdote about Rudy as mayor:

Rudy ran for mayor more than once, losing in the primary the first time. The second time, he got the backing of the police union, running as the law-and-order candidate. He rallied with the police, screaming into a megaphone "Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit!" with regard to his opinion that current mayor, David Dinkins (the first African-American mayor), had run the city into the ground.

Once installed, Rudy ran roughshod against all aspects, arresting squeegee guys (who "offer" to wash your windshield when you're stuck in traffic).

Then a trio of events encapsulated the true ethos of Rudy Giuliani: Abner Louima, Patrick Dorisman, Amadou Diallo, and Sean Bell. Louima had been arrested and in holding when his rectum was assaulted with a broomstick by police. (To be fair, he retracted his claim that during the assault, police gleefully yelled "It's Giuliani time!" ) Dorisman was approached by the police on a drug sting who tried to use entrapment to make an arrest. He refused to buy drugs from the cops, brushing them off in disdain. He was shot dead by the police. Giuliani tried to cover for the police by unlawfully releasing Dorisman's juvie file, claiming that he "was no choirboy." Amadou Diallo, answered the door to the NYC Police and was reaching for his ID in his wallet, and they shot him 41 times through the door. Finally, Sean Bell was returning home from his bachelor party. The police shot him in his car without cause.

Giuliani bent over backwards to cover for the NYC Police when they assaulted unlawfully and outright murdered men. Never apologized, never equivocated.

[C_U_L8R]

4. He's always been awful

The PR bullshit that fooled many is starting to wear off.

[BumRushDaShow]

5. Being close enough here in Philly to pick up NYC radio stations

...and on occasion in the analog TV days, we used to be able to tune in NYC's channel 7 - WABC (and have some of their news mixed in with ours due to the fact that they cover North Jersey as a media market and we cover South Jersey as a media market). We were also very aware of his Ghouliani's malfeasances and notably this disgrace back in the '90s during Mayor David Dinkin's term -

There was an OP on DU from a few years ago with a link to an article that recapped that fiasco - https://upload.democraticunderground.com/10028285242

The drama of his multiple wives, including the showdown between his 2nd wife and him and his insistence that his "mistress" be permitted to live in Gracie Mansion, like to set NYC on fire. Of course that "mistress" became his 3rd wife and is now in the same position as his previous 2 wives, discarded.

And yes you are correct. His sideshow antics were pure tabloid material... enough to get coverage here in Philly, and it has gone on for a long long time - well before 9/11.