Rudy Giuliani Claims He’s More Lucid Than “90% of the Population”

As we’ve discussed at length around these parts, one of the greatest mysteries of the 21st century is “WTF happened to Rudy Giuliani?” In the years since he made a name for himself as “America’s mayor,” the guy has squandered his reputation approximately 357 different ways, from helping Donald Trump try to overturn the results of a free and fair election to shaving in the middle of a crowded restaurant. In between, he’s unwittingly appeared in a Sacha Baron Cohen movie with his hand down his pants, butt-dialed countless reporters, farted so frequently he was banned from Trump’s debate prep sessions, held a press conference next to a sex shop, taken to hawking cigars and gold coins on YouTube, had his home and office raided as part of a criminal probe into his Ukraine dealings, had his law license suspended in New York and D.C., and been sued for $1.3 billion over his election-fraud lies. In short, he’s a clown, and even Trump seems to know it.

But what does Rudy have to say about his transition from hallowed 9/11 mayor to “Sir, we’ve told you more than once you can’t clip your toenails in here”? The answer may surprise you!

In an interview with NBC New York, Giuliani told reporter Melissa Russo that while he’s aware of what people have been saying about him, it’s not him that’s gone crazy, it’s everyone else:

Rudy Giuliani says he knows that people think he’s gone off the rails. “I don’t care,” he told NBC New York during a recent interview at the World Trade Center Memorial in which he discussed everything from the prospect of going to jail to allegations he is an alcoholic. Asked about the widespread perception that he’s changed and even squandered his 9-11 legacy in recent years, Giuliani said, “I am aware of that. And what’s happened is, our country has gone off the rails…I’m exactly the same person. They changed!”

If his reputation has taken a hit, the former mayor says it’s the fault of the media, and what he calls an irrational hatred of former President Donald Trump. Giuliani says this bias has now taken hold at the U.S. Department of Justice which is investigating his dealings in Ukraine while serving as the president’s lawyer. Giuliani tells NBC New York the FBI now wants to examine his emails and texts dating back to 1995. “This is as unconstitutional as you can get. Investigate my life, even my time as mayor for some crime, or something they can distort into a crime,” he said.

Though furious that the FBI raided his law office, Giuliani is amused that investigators have not been able to unlock his cellphone, months after seizing it. “I don’t think they’ve been able to get into it, which is why they won’t give it back,” Giuliani said, laughing out loud. “If they were nicer to me, I’d help them. But they’re not nice. They’ve been investigating me for two and a half years, and I’ve been offering to go there and explain anything they wanted.”

As for the question of whether or not he’s a drunk, Giuliani claimed nothing could be further from the truth.

The 77-year old former mayor also denies accounts from unnamed former White House coworkers in published reports that he has a drinking problem. “Never,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve ever done an interview drunk. I mean, I drink normally. I like Scotch, I drink Scotch,” he said.

As an aside, it’s not great if you can’t definitively say if you’ve ever conducted an interview drunk. Nevertheless, Giuliani insisted he’s “not an alcoholic,” and in an even bolder claim insisted, “I probably function more effectively than 90% of the population.”

Unfortunately, journalistic accounts suggest otherwise. In their recent book, I Alone Can Fix It, Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker wrote that observers thought Giuliani was drinking too much on election night, while author Michael Wolff noted in his book that sources told him Giuliani was, “if not constantly drunk, certainly buzzed…throughout most of the Trump administration.“ Wolff also shared an anecdote on MSNBC in which he claimed that on election night, “Rudy was incredibly drunk and weaving this way and that way…Trump’s aides were obviously, or rightly concerned about what Giuliani was saying to the president about the election and giving him misinformation, but they were also concerned that he was going to break [priceless artifacts]” contained in the White House’s China Room, where valuable china used by previous presidential administrations is displayed. So there’s that.

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Capitol officers sue Trump & company over election lies, Capitol attack

The suit is the first to allege that Trump worked in connection with far-right extremists to promote his baseless claims that the election was stolen. Per The New York Times:

The suit, which implicated members of the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers militia and Trump associates like Roger J. Stone Jr., was arguably the most expansive civil effort to date seeking to hold Mr. Trump and his allies legally accountable for the storming of the Capitol…. Several police officers who served during the Capitol riot have come forward with stories of the insults and injuries they faced that day, most prominently at a congressional hearing in July. But the lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in the District of Columbia, was the first time that the seven plaintiffs, five of whom are Black, offered details of their ordeals. One of the officers, Governor Latson, was helping to secure the Senate chamber when a mob of rioters broke in and shoved him, beat him and hurled racial slurs at him, the lawsuit says. Another, Jason DeRoche, was caught in a melee on the west front steps of the Capitol, where, according to the suit, rioters pelted him with batteries and doused him with mace and bear spray, causing his eyes to swell shut.

The suit contends that Mr. Trump and his co-defendants violated the Ku Klux Klan Act, an 1871 statute that includes protections against violent conspiracies that interfere with Congress’s constitutional duties. It also accuses the defendants of committing “bias-motivated acts of terrorism” in violation of District of Columbia law…. While the new lawsuit appears to largely rely on news reports and details gleaned from criminal cases filed by the Justice Department, it takes a broad view of the origins of the attack. It argues that the conspiracy to disrupt the election started as early as May 2020, when Mr. Trump began complaining on social media that mail-in voting could “lead to massive fraud.”

As for the events that took place on January 6, 2021, the suit argues—quite reasonably!—that Trump riled up the mob and then, despite knowing “the situation at the Capitol was dire,” did nothing to condemn the rioters and in fact released a video repeating his election lies and telling the violent mob he loved them.

“This is probably the most comprehensive account of Jan. 6 in terms of civil cases,” Edward Caspar, a lawyer who is leading the suit for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, told the Times. “It spans from the former president to militants around him to his campaign supporters.” Representatives for Trump do not appear to have commented on the suit, but have previously claimed he has absolute immunity from lawsuits over official actions taken while he was president, and that his remarks are shielded by the First Amendment.

Surprise: Schools with COVID outbreaks aren’t listening to public health experts

Funny how that works. Per CNBC:

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Friday that recently reopened schools that are already struggling with large-scale COVID outbreaks generally aren’t following federal guidelines that recommend students and staff wear masks indoors and get vaccinated when eligible. Pediatric COVID hospitalizations in the U.S. reached their highest reported levels this week, and Walensky said school closures will occur in districts with insufficient safeguards to block community spread of the virus. Speaking at a White House COVID-19 briefing, Walensky called on schools to adopt a multi-layered approach that also includes social distancing, enhanced ventilation and Covid testing to prevent outbreaks in schools.

Walensky, who didn’t call out any school districts by name, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studied an outbreak in Northern California where an unvaccinated, symptomatic teacher read to a class without a mask, spreading the virus to students, staff and their families. And in Florida, Hillsborough County Public Schools reported this month that nearly 10,400 students and almost 340 staff were in isolation or quarantine after close contact with a positive COVID case. The CDC also studied COVID measures in Los Angeles County, where prevention strategies kept the rate of cases in schools lower than the rate of cases in the county. Case rates among children and adolescents in schools with COVID mitigation protocols were more than three times lower last winter than community case rates, Walensky said.