Caricature of authoritarian Rudolph Giuliani
The age of rapid political blowback, helped along by social media sharing, is upon us, and Rudolph Giuliani‘s racist remarks against President Barack Obama are the latest example. Here is a rough timeline of how Giuliani was hoist with his own petard:
1. Last Wednesday evening, Giuliani, appearing at a Republican dinner event in Manhattan that included Wisconsin Governor and potential Republican Presidential candidate Scott Walker, said:
I do not believe, and I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I do not believe that the president loves America. He doesn’t love you. And he doesn’t love me. He wasn’t brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up through love of this country.
2. On Thursday, in a New York Times interview, Giuliani made things even worse for himself, by saying:
Some people thought it was racist — I thought that was a joke, since he was brought up by a white mother, a white grandfather, went to white schools, and most of this he learned from white people. This isn’t racism. This is socialism or possibly anti-colonialism.
3. Also on Thursday, Sally Kohn wrote a piece at the Daily Beast entitled: “Rudy’s warped Obama hit falls flat.” Kohn’s first paragraph pretty much summed up Giuliani’s problem:
Generally speaking, when you start a comment with the qualifier “I know this is a horrible thing to say,” it’s a good sign you shouldn’t say it. It’s sort of like starting a sentence with “This is probably going to sound racist, but…” Just stop. Right there. Don’t go on. You’ve already warned yourself.
4. Giuliani also appeared on Megyn Kelly’s Fox News program on Thursday. Kelly asked Giuliani if he wanted to apologize for his remarks. When Giuliani declined to apologize, Kelly asked, critically:
But to say that he doesn’t love America, I mean, that he could view foreign policy as a Democrat might view it, and through a different lens than you, a Republican, might see it, you could understand the differences between you. But to condemn his patriotism? To question his love of America?
Giuliani’s response to Kelly was to keep repeating “I don’t feel it.”
5. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz called Giuliani’s comments “vicious” and “profoundly offensive to both the President and the Office.” According to Schultz, Giuliani’s remarks were “yet another example of the extreme rhetoric that continues to divide our country rather than uniting us in common purpose.”
6. On Friday morning, Mika Brzezinski of MSNBC‘s conservative “Morning Joe” program said:
First of all, these are stupid comments. I’m sort of not surprised, Gene, that Rudy Giuliani made them, because he’s appealed to a divisive sector of the base before, I’ve heard him do that. I’m surprised he didn’t walk them back more quickly.
7. Some sources then pointed out that, if “upbringing” is the test of one’s character, Giuliani is in trouble, as his own father was imprisoned at Sing Sing for robbing a milkman at gunpoint, and reportedly was a loansharking enforcer who committed violent crimes as part of his job. This was in contrast to President Obama’s grandparents who helped raise young Barack. Obama’s grandfather, Stanley Dunham, served in the U.S. Army in World War II, landing in France weeks after the Normandy Invasion. Obama’s grandmother, Madelyn, helped the war effort by building B-29 bombers at the Boeing plant assembly line.
8. Readers were reminded that, in 2000, Giuliani had to defend his father’s criminal background, but his defense was quite weak, including saying ”My father died 19 years ago, and the details of his life died with him, as far as I’m concerned.” Other writers mentioned that Giuliani received six deferments to dodge military service in the Vietnam War, and that Giuliani’s record on marriages and adultery was quite poor.
9. Also on Friday, when asked about Giuliani’s remarks, Scott Walker tried to be cute, saying of Obama: I’ve never asked the president so I don’t really know what his opinions are on that one way or another.” However, some of Walker’s potential GOP rivals exhibited a bit more political savvy. Senator Marco Rubio said that he had “no doubt” Obama loves America, but that the two have policy disagreements. Similarly, Senator Rand Paul said that, while he also disagrees with Obama on many policy matters, it was “a mistake to question people’s motives.” Senator Lindsey Graham echoed these sentiments, saying that he does not “question [the president’s] patriotism or love for our country.” Indiana Governor Mike Pence also agreed that Giuliani’s statements were not helpful.
10. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said on Friday of Giuliani:
It’s sad to see when somebody who has attained a certain level of public stature — and even admiration — tarnishes that legacy so thoroughly…. I think really the only thing that I feel is, I feel sorry for Rudy Giuliani today.
11. On HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” program Friday night, New York author Fran Liebowitz said:
I remember the first time Giuliani ran for Mayor, his ads … basically said, “vote for me, and it will be 1952 again…. He is just soaked in nostalgia, and that is what he meant when he said, “Obama doesn’t love us,” you know, he doesn’t love the country like we love the country”…. What is it behind Giuliani’s comments? Racism…. When Giuliani was the Mayor, every five minutes an unarmed black guy was shot in the back. Constantly. And it was always a different excuse from the cops: “He had something in his hand, I thought it was a gun.” It was a candy bar. “He had something in his hand, I thought it was a gun.” It was a key chain.
12. On Saturday, the hits kept coming, as Linda Stasi wrote a scathing piece in the New York Daily News, addressed to Giuliani:
But just between us, I thought you’d like to know that one of your old friends called me the other day to lament, “What happened to the Rudy I used to love and admire?”
Damned if I know, I admitted, seeing how I never much loved or admired you in the first place.
That, of course, didn’t stop me from venturing a guess: “Perhaps it’s megalomania-infused narcissism with an overlay of overt racism?”
13. Folks on social media have had a field day criticizing and mocking Giuliani, both by sharing articles about him and at Twitter hashtags such as #Giuliani. Likewise, many social media users used the hashtag #ObamaLovesAmerica to counter Giuliani’s comments and share information, including some tweets comparing the favorable job market, economic growth, stock market, number of insured Americans, etc. under President Obama to “GWBush‘s train wreck.”
Note that much of the blowback against Rudolph Giuliani is based on the old adage “don’t throw stones in glass houses.” The other adage at play, perhaps solely from the White House, is “when your opponent is destroying himself, stand back and don’t interfere.” Most of us, however, do not feel sorry for Rudolph Giuliani, as he took the lowest possible road to attack the President of the United States, the keeper of an office that Giuliani has no chance of attaining.
Image by DonkeyHotey, used under Creative Commons license. http://is.gd/1ykopp
