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Let’s talk about Rudy Giuliani, once America’s Mayor, now Trump’s lickspittle, who stands at the center of the Ukraine scandal.
Understand: He did NOT "fall from grace." He has always been egomaniacal, self-serving, loquacious, mean-spirited, and morally bankrupt.
[THREAD]
![Let’s talk about Rudy Giuliani, once America’s Mayor, now Trump’s lickspittle, who stands at the center of the Ukraine scandal. Understand: He did NOT "fall from grace." He has always been egomaniacal, self-serving, loquacious, mean-spirited, and morally bankrupt.[THREAD]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EIxFAdiWoAAiobx.jpg "Let’s talk about Rudy Giuliani, once America’s Mayor, now Trump’s lickspittle, who stands at the center of the Ukraine scandal. Understand: He did NOT \"fall from grace.\" He has always been egomaniacal, self-serving, loquacious, mean-spirited, and morally bankrupt.[THREAD]")
Understand: He did NOT "fall from grace." He has always been egomaniacal, self-serving, loquacious, mean-spirited, and morally bankrupt.
[THREAD]
1/ As a resident of NYC on 9/11, I have had a special place in my heart for Rudy. I loathed him, as most New Yorkers did, on 9/10, but I appreciated his leadership on that fateful Tuesday.
I now understand that I have been duped, misled, lied to, by a disgrace of a human being.
I now understand that I have been duped, misled, lied to, by a disgrace of a human being.
2/ Rudy as Great Leader, as Emergency Manager, is a grand illusion—which is the title of a great book on the subject by Dan Collins & the late, great Wayne Barrett. In reality, Rudy’s piss-poor decision-making prior to 9/11 made the response to 9/11 WORSE, not better.
3/ Despite later claims of being concerned with terrorism, Rudy did not implement any viable plans dealing with terrorism response—despite the fact that the WTC had ALREADY BEEN ATTACKED BY TERRORISTS, in 1993.
4/ After 9/11, Rudy talked ad nauseum about his establishment of an Office of Emergency Management command center, which would allow for centralized emergency response. But he insisted on putting this IN THE WTC COMPLEX, which was colossally stupid even BEFORE the attacks.
5/ Rudy spent the morning of 9/11 wandering around Lower Manhattan, trying to find an alternative location for an impromptu OEM to replace the destroyed one. This made for good television, as crews had easy access to the peripatetic mayor, but was negligently bad management.
6/ Just as Donald Trump was bad for the country but great for CBS News, the decision to place OEM’s command center at WTC 7 was bad for New York but fantastic for Rudy Giuliani.
7/ OEM itself was not ready to coordinate the response between the police & the fire depts., which viewed one another with antipathy. This was Crisis Management 101, and Rudy failed. Also, FDNY had walkie-talkies that were 40 years old.
All of this was Rudy’s fault.
All of this was Rudy’s fault.
8/ Rudy was in the spotlight on 9/11 because President George W. Bush was AWOL all day, careening around the sky to evade…we’re still not sure.
Osama Bin Laden was not Thanos, did not possess Infinity Stones, and was half a world away.
Osama Bin Laden was not Thanos, did not possess Infinity Stones, and was half a world away.
9/ Donald Trump was not the first egomaniacal New Yorker to half-assedly lobby for an illegal third term. Because of term limits, Rudy could not run for mayor again when his term expired at the end of 2001. That didn’t stop him from trying.
10/ The smoke was still billowing from Ground Zero when Rudy Giuliani began to exploit the tragedy for his personal benefit. He was already pitching his new concern, Giuliani Partners, in the fall of 2001. One of the “partners” was the sleazebag Police Commissioner, Bernie Kerik.
11/ Giuliani Partners was billed as a management consulting firm, but all it really did was allow its clients to bask in the heroic glow of its eponymous founder. Rudy took a national tragedy and made it his own personal brand.
12/ Rudy Giuliani: the pimp who trafficked 9/11.
13/ Like a pimp, Rudy was not picky in selecting clients. If you paid the (exorbitant) bill, you were in. And the companies willing to plonk down the requisite coin tended to be shady af.
14/ Rudy pimped out his 9/11 aura to: then-troubled Merrill Lynch; broke WorldCom; Nextel, whose lousy product contributed to the communication problems in New York on 9/11; and Purdue Pharma.
15/ Once you’re in bed with Purdue, makers of OxyContin & the company most responsible for the current opioid epidemic in the United States, why NOT lobby for dictators and mob money launderers? Why NOT cavort with Manafort & extort Ukraine?
16/ Rudy treats 9/11 like it’s his corner. He does this still, going so far as to insist, repeatedly, that Hillary Clinton never visited Ground Zero, despite ample photographic evidence to the contrary.
17/ But where was "America's Mayor" earlier this year, when Congress wanted to deny medical benefits to first responders? Jon Stewart, a comedian, gave an impassioned appeal that day, & has selflessly helped keep the spotlight on that cause for two decades now. Rudy? Absent.
18/ The real story of Rudy Giuliani reads like this: His fuck-ups as mayor led to the city’s chaotic response to the 9/11 attacks, resulting in more first responder deaths than would have happened under more able leadership. His legend is a straight-up lie.
19/ the Rudy Giuliani we see today—“Colludy Rudy” who does Trump’s illicit bidding in Eastern Europe; “Nosferatu Rudy,” who spewed fire and brimstone at the RNC; “Rantin’ Rudy,” who raves like a madman on the cable news shows—IS the real Rudy Giuliani.
Rudy is NOT a fallen hero. He’s the same piece of shit he’s been his whole life. “America’s Mayor” was always fake news.
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PS
This thread is culled from my longer piece, available at @AlexandraErin’s Substack. Please take a look & share: https://alexandraerin.substack.com/p/the-myth-of-americas-mayor
This thread is culled from my longer piece, available at @AlexandraErin’s Substack. Please take a look & share: https://alexandraerin.substack.com/p/the-myth-of-americas-mayor
