In a bonkers interview, Rudy Giuliani ranted and raved on Fox News about his innocence, Joe Biden’s guilt, corruption at the State Department and DOJ and saying he has “insurance” just in case his very good buddy Donald Trump decides to throw him “under the bus.”
Yesterday, I thought a Fox host hinted Trump should throw Giuliani under the bus. Trump didn’t go there but even more Fox News tire tracks were discernible on Giuliani during today’s interview with Ed Henry.
The basis of the interview was, supposedly, Giuliani’s letter to Sen. Lindsey Graham requesting three or four Ukrainians get visas in order to come to the U.S. and testify in Graham’s pending investigation into the Bidens and Burisma. That investigation is just in time to deflect attention from the very damning testimony in the Trump impeachment hearings.
“What would they say about Burisma and Hunter Biden?” Henry asked about the proposed witnesses.
Giuliani never provided a clear answer. “This case has been real simple from the day that Joe Biden confessed to committing bribery back in January of 2018 and the Council on Foreign Relations didn’t note anything about it although he said precisely what President Trump said a year and a half later,” Giuliani replied.
That’s a lie, but Henry said nothing to push back.
Still avoiding Henry’s question, Giuliani went on to accuse Biden of “lying all his life,” which is rich coming from the guy representing Liar in Chief Trump. Giuliani also went on a rant about Biden's supposed corruption due to some members of his family benefitting from his position. But as Politico has reported, there’s no evidence that Biden ever used his power inappropriately. More importantly, it had anything to do with Ukraine.
Rather than push Giuliani on what the Ukrainians will provide, Henry asked if Giuliani is willing to have his associate Lev Parnas testify to Congress. Parnas, now under indictment, claims to have information relevant to the Ukraine scandal he's willing to provide, including a newly-reported claim that Rep. Devin Nunes, the Republican ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, which is spearheading the impeachment inquiry, met with former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Victor Shokin in order to get dirt on Biden.
Shokin was a corrupt prosecutor whom Biden pushed out of office on behalf of the U.S. and its allies. He also at the center of the debunked right-wing conspiracy theories about Biden, the 2016 election and Ukraine.
In other words, Shokin is a guy with an axe to grind against Biden – a fact Henry didn’t think worth noting.
Giuliani argued that Nunes should have met with Shokin because he had “relevant evidence of massive corruption in the Ukraine being covered up by the ambassador, being covered up by the State Department and not being investigated by the FBI or the Justice Department.”
Funny, Henry had no questions about that either. Instead, he changed the subject to ask, “Are you afraid, Mr. Mayor, that you could be indicted?”
“Ohhhh, wow,” Giuliani said, perhaps seeing the bus coming at him. Now, he pointed a finger at Fox News: “I did the right thing. I represented my client in a very, very effective way. I was so effective that I discovered a pattern of corruption that the Washington press has been covering up for three or four years. You should have jumped all over this in 2015 when this awful conflict was mentioned.”
“Sure,” Henry said.
“And it was hidden and suppressed by the Washington press,” Giuliani continued. “The reality is, I’m embarrassing you because you didn’t do your job and I’m also going to bring out a pay-for-play scheme in the Obama administration that will be devastating for the Democrat party. I expected the moment I heard Biden’s name, I told my colleagues they’re gonna try to kill me. Because they’re gonna kill the messenger. But, dammit, the Mafia couldn’t kill me, your colleagues are not gonna kill me.”
Henry changed the subject to say that the Wall Street Journal reported Giuliani would “personally profit” from a natural gas pipeline in Ukraine “and that that’s being investigated.”
Giuliani cackled as he insisted that was not true. Then he attacked Fox again: "I am telling you, if I were representing a terrorist and they were doing this to me because they didn’t like my client, all you guys would be promoting me as a hero and a victim of what is in fact a concerted effort by the press to destroy me. You’re not gonna get away with it!" Although a banner read, GIULIANI: NOT CONCERNED ABOUT FACING INDICTMENT, he sure sounded like a man who is.
Giuliani also issued a veiled threat to Trump. Saying the two have a “very, very good relationship," Giuliani added, “I’ve seen things written like, ‘He’s gonna throw me under the bus.’ When they say that, I say he isn’t, but I have insurance.” Yet, before long, Giuliani began boasting about his previous career prosecuting corruption cases. Without irony, he insisted, “I despise corrupt public officials.”
Giuliani also claimed, “I’ve got the documents in my file. Nobody wants to look at them ‘cause everybody’s covering up for [Biden].” But, clearly, Fox and the Republicans are not covering up for Biden. So why hasn’t Giuliani showed the documents to them? Henry didn’t ask.
Watch it below, from the November 23, 2019 America’s News HQ.
Giuliani is certainly hinting at flipping but Trump has some aces up his sleeve. Giuliani’s drooling partisan sycophancy, a mental disorder turning him into an automatonic Trump-bot. Control over useful idiot puppet Bob Barr who can steer or even stifle any federal investigation or prosecution. And ultimately there’s the ‘precious’ gift of a pardon to dangle before Gollum’s eyes.
I don’t think Bolton knows much more than the people who already testified. His opposition to Trump’s policies were widely known and I doubt Trump trusted him with any important inner sanctum secrets of his criminality. Witnesses testified Bolton said he didn’t know what sort of “drug deal” was being cooked up and appears to have deliberately stayed away from it. He merely referred people to seek legal guidance. The only wild card is if someone close to Dear Leader whispered in Bolton’s ear. Anyway, Bolton bolted for safety (rather than confront the Big Boss?) and now is leveraging this story to draw attention to his Twitter account where he undoubtedly will spew his foreign policy far-right banality interviewing for Fox News (paid) face time (and build excitement for his sure to disappoint book).
With Bolton, it’s sadly unlikely that he’ll actually do anything – he’s always been more bluster than anything else. But he could blow this entire situation up in a heartbeat if he releases what he certainly has – documents showing the craven work that the Pence White House was trying to do in Ukraine.
With Giuliani, it’s looking more and more likely that he could be indicted on multiple charges – which will be a sad ending to his career. But it’s an ending he openly chose for himself. The question is whether he goes the Manafort “good soldier” route and keeps his mouth shut (not likely given his frantic need for attention) or whether he starts blabbing about how much Pence and his childish spokesman knew about Giuliani’s dark work. He could even add to the dumpster fire building around Devin Nunes.
The wildest part about all of Giuliani’s whacked obsession with Joe Biden is that he has the man backwards. Biden’s history isn’t one of graft and viciousness. It’s one of constantly compromising and acting like he knows better. Which is why the Ukrainian attempt to influence him failed. The Burisma guys thought they could buff their tarred image by hiring Biden’s son to show they were on the up and up and to curry favor. Instead, the whole thing backfired on them when Biden refused to play. It’s no wonder that they’re angry with him. But if they had anything on Biden, it would have come out when the actual prosecutor was hired following Shokin’s dismissal. Instead, the investigation showed the Bidens did nothing wrong. And what this situation is revealing more than anything else is just how terrified the Pence White House is of running against Joe Biden next year.
Whose dementia is going to get him committed first? Trump’s or Giuliani’s?