There are times when it’s appropriate to quote a particular morsel of a longer piece because it’s emblematic of the whole thing. In this instance, one must read @Olivianuzzi’s entire story to appreciate how low Giuliani has sunk. https://t.co/3K4Trfi6HH
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) December 23, 2019
Yes, we all knew it was coming, but this piece almost too cruel, until you remember it’s Roody Colloody. Olivia Nuzzi is a professional journalist-assassin, and I doubt very much she’d have written this — or that her editors would’ve published it — if there were even a small chance Giuliani could make another political ‘comeback’:
As the black SUV came to a stop on 33rd Street in Manhattan, its lights flashing, a pale hand stretched through the open window of the passenger door and gave a little wave. It was attached to Rudy Giuliani, who smiled from behind his tortoiseshell sunglasses. He apologized for being late. “Couldn’t go on sidewalks like I used to,” he said, mourning a perk of his past life as mayor.
It was early in the afternoon on Sunday, December 8, and Giuliani had just returned from Ukraine, where he said he was looking for information to undermine the case to impeach his client, President Donald Trump…
In addition to being the president’s free personal attorney, Giuliani, who is 75, is an informal White House cybersecurity adviser and a high-priced cyber-security contractor. In one hand, he clutched three phones of varying sizes. Two of the devices were unlocked, their screens revealing open tabs and a barrage of banner notifications as they knocked into each other and reacted to Giuliani’s grip. He accidentally activated Siri, who said she didn’t understand his command. “She never understands me,” he said. He sighed and poked at the device, attempting to quiet her.
Giuliani is quick to announce that he knows “every block of this city,” but he lives on the Upper East Side and doesn’t linger much across or below the park. When I asked him to bring me somewhere he likes to hang out, he quickly directed his bodyguard to the Mark, a five-star hotel on East 77th Street. Always a creature of habit, Giuliani is extra-aware of where he’s welcome these days. He says that “because of what’s happened” his circle is tightening, that he doesn’t trust anyone anymore.
I asked him how he ever trusted Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two Russian associates with a business called Fraud Guarantee who were arrested by the FBI in October. “They look like Miami people. I know a lot of Miami people that look like that that are perfectly legitimate and act like them,” Giuliani said. “Neither one of them have ever been convicted of a crime. Neither one. And generally that’s my cutoff point, because if you do it based on allegations and claims and — you’re not gonna work with anybody,” he said, laughing. “Particularly in business.”…
In the grand tradition of Soros conspiracy theorists, Giuliani believes the media is doing the billionaire’s bidding by printing lies about him, yet he often bungles his own attempts to discredit the media’s reporting. While attempting to argue that, despite what has been written, “I have no business interests in Ukraine,” he told me about his business interests in Ukraine…
As he spoke, he fixed his gaze straight ahead, rarely turning to make eye contact. When his mouth closed, saliva leaked from the corner and crawled down his face through the valley of a wrinkle. He didn’t notice, and it fell onto his sweater.
“If they think I committed a crime, they’re out of their minds,” he said. “I’ve been doing this for 50 years. I know how not to commit crimes. And if they think I’ve lost my integrity, maybe they’ve lost theirs in their insanity over hating Trump with some of the things they did that I never would’ve tolerated when I was U.S. Attorney.”…
He had a few ideas for going after the credibility of witnesses. “The guy that overheard the telephone call,” for instance, “anybody check if the guy has an earpiece? Maybe he didn’t have it in. How old is he? How old is that guy?” There was a possibility that he was deaf, he said, and didn’t know what he heard. “How do we know he isn’t a paranoid schizophrenic?,” he said. “How do we know he isn’t an alcoholic?”…
Read the whole thing; you don’t wanna miss the kicker at the end.
I just got off the phone with Giuliani, who called again. He claims he’s now read the story and thought it was unfair, and that he fell into the wall because he has a bad knee. He said he shouldn’t talk to me and that he’s going to the opera tonight. “Merry Christmas,” he said. https://t.co/nLC7LVFCxA
— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) December 23, 2019
— Schooley (@Rschooley) December 23, 2019
Mike in NC
Read a funny piece today about someone who recently sat down to talk with Rudy, who was described as wearing a navy blue suit with the fly unzipped. How Trumpian!
mrmoshpotato
Awwwwwww………..fuck ’em!
mrmoshpotato
@Mike in NC: Rudy Colludy Ghouliani is muscling in on Jack Burkman’s trash-with-an-unzipped-fly territory, I see.
Aleta
NotMax
Blazing Prattles: The Giuliani Story.
Not (thankfully) coming to a theater near you.
Ken
Inexplicably Merriam-Webster did not include “underbus” on their 2019 words of the year list, going for such moldy oldies as “impeach”, “egregious”, and “exculpate”. Shockingly, quid pro quo made the cut despite being (1) Latin and (2) three words.
Anya
He’s gross in every way. Also:
It sounds like he’s saying he’s been committing crimes for 50-years and he knows how to cover it up.
HalfAssedHomesteader
He’s a member of the Powerfully Demented class. I think if we’re lucky enough to look back on this period that will explain a lot of what’s happening now.
mrmoshpotato
@Anya: LOL With all the saying-the-quiet-parts-loud, I wouldn’t be surprised if he meant exactly that.
Adam L Silverman
@Anya: His uncle was made in one of the Italian crime families. I think it is highly likely that Giuliani was kept clean and run up the law enforcement side to have someone working for the family from the inside of Federal law enforcement.
And before anyone says that sort of thing is fiction, my parents had a neighbor in Tampa who was an assistant US Attorney. Dad was a criminologist who started the first program in Florida at USF. They used to kibitz until one day he was arrested. His cousin on his mother’s side runs the mob in central Florida. And he was allegedly working for his cousin from the inside of the US Attorney’s Office.
phdesmond
@Ken: on Wonkette, they use “embussen” or some word like that.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Adam L Silverman:
that was one of the plot lines in the novel Prizzi’s Honor, dropped from the movie, and Richard Condon really took it to the limits in the sequels
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@phdesmond: I think Josh Marshall has created a fake German word for it, Unterbussen
Giant Military Weasel
I have this feeling that dozens of reporters have seen Roooooo-dy run into walls w/his fly unzipped on his way to a 2-Bloody-Mary lunch… and never breathed a word to preserve access.
phdesmond
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: hee!
lumpkin
1.That is some gonzo journalism like we ain’t seen in a long time and we need a lot more of it.
2. That Rudy is close to trump tells me that we are truly fucked if this insane shit continues.
Snarki, child of Loki
“Rudy, who was described as wearing a navy blue suit with the fly unzipped.”
Rudy’s already at the point of forgetting cellphones.
And now, forgetting to zip up.
Next is forgetting to zip <i>down</i>.
columbusqueen
Rudy really redefines the term fuckwit, doesn’t he?
Uncle Cosmo
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Sounds like acceptable Schweindeutsch to me. Complete with separable prefix, z.B.: Rudy Colludy war bei Trumpf untergebusst.
randy khan
Rudy has a very strange relationship with Nuzzi. She wrote another article for New York on his phone habits a while back, which led to a nasty letter from him (published in the letters column) more or less saying she was dead to him. But here he is, having lunch with her even though he knows exactly how she’s going to report the story.
I’d say it was a Weiner-esque political death wish, but I think he’s beyond realizing what he’s doing.