As predictably as the sun rising in the east, Rudy Giuliani took to Fox News for some Republican racial rehab over his shocking comments on Meet The Press yesterday. Not surprisingly, the three Fox & Friends hosts could not have been more accommodating, understanding and helpful in promoting his talking points.
This morning’s Fox & Friends discussion with Giuliani started with a clip of his Meet The Press debate with African American professor Michael Eric Dyson. There, Giuliani reiterated the familiar right-wing/Fox News talking point that African Americans should be protesting black crime instead of police officers shooting unarmed (black) citizens. As if there’s a quota for black protests.
But Giuliani really stepped in it yesterday when he said accusingly to Dyson, “White police officers wouldn’t be there if you weren’t killing each other.” Not surprisingly, Giuliani's comments went viral.
Fox News Comes To Giuliani's Aid
Co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck did her part for Giuliani's racial rehab effort by saying, “The mayor was actually just laying out some facts.”
Co-host Peter Johnson, Jr. asked with dripping sarcasm, “Are you a white supremacist, Mayor Giuliani?”
Giuliani more or less amplified on his previous remarks. He told Fox viewers, “I probably saved more black lives as mayor of New York City than any mayor in the history of the city with the possible exception of Mike Bloomberg, who was there for twelve years. …I’d like to see if Dr. Dyson has ever saved as many lives in his community as I’ve saved."
And how many has Dyson killed or assaulted? Let’s not forget that Giuliani had his own “Michael Brown” cases: Abner Louima, Amadou Diallo and Patrick Dorismond anyone? In case you’ve forgotten, here are some details from the Louima case, via the New York Times:
One (NYPD) officer, Justin A. Volpe, admitted in court in May 1999 that he had rammed a broken broomstick into Mr. Louima’s rectum and then thrust it in his face. He said he had mistakenly believed that Mr. Louima had punched him in the head during a street brawl outside a nightclub in Flatbush, but he acknowledged that he had also intended to humiliate the handcuffed immigrant. He left the force and was later sentenced to 30 years in prison. The commanders of the 70th Precinct were replaced within days of the assault. As the legal case wore on, Charles Schwarz, a former police officer, was sentenced in federal court in 2002 to five years in prison for perjury stemming from the torture case. A jury found that Mr. Schwarz had lied when he testified that he had not taken Mr. Louima to the station house bathroom where the assault took place.
Fox’s own Sean Hannity also inserted himself into the Louima case when he viciously attacked Louima on his radio show during the 1999 trial.
Playing on the homosexual rumor and inconsistencies in Louima’s story, Hannity and his producer sang a parody of Lionel Richie’s song “Three Times a Lady,” changing the words to “you’re once, twice, three times a liar.” Hannity stopped referring to the victim as “Lying Louima” only after Volpe confessed to sodomizing Louima with the help of another officer (OnePeoplesProject.com)
Not one of the three co-hosts seemed to remember. Or if they did, they were too solicitous of their Republican BFF to remind him.
Giuliani continued, “I (saved lives) by having to use police officers in black areas where there was an astounding amount of crime. If that crime was in white areas, police officers would be in white areas. If it were in Hispanic areas, it would be in Hispanic areas. …I had a statistically based system.”
Co-host Steve Doocy added supportively, “You were citing black-on-black violence statistics.”
Yeah, citing black-on-black statistics as an excuse to malign African Americans and suggest that that somehow disqualifies them from protesting police behavior.
On Fox News, dead blacks are just acceptable, collateral damage in the righteous police fight against inner-city crime
GIULIANI: The danger to a black child in America is not a white police officer. That’s gonna happen less than one percent of the time. The danger to a black child – if it was my child? The danger is another black. 93% of the times, they’re going to be killed by another black. …It’s a fairly rare exception when a black kills a white.”
…Blacks are basically killing other blacks and these people are spending millions and millions of dollars demonstrating. They have every right to do it. Why don’t they spend an equal amount of time trying to straighten out that horrendous crime problem that exists? …These numbers are overwhelming. When you look at this, it could make you cry.
…It depends on whether you want to be some kind of a racial demagogue, who I consider a racist, which is what many of these people are who make these things like they’re the rule or whether you want to be fair and decent and really save people’s lives.
As he spoke Doocy and Hasselbeck offered no challenges but murmured further sympathetic comments.
Watch it below, along with Giuliani’s original comments, from this morning’s Fox & Friends.