Rudy Giuliani :From The Heroic American Major to Right-Hand Man Beside President Trump
Rudolph William Louis Giuliani, who is well-known as Rudy Giuliani, recently suffers from a great humiliation and a great reputation collapse due to a compromising scene in a new film directed by Borat. In Borat 2 Movie trailer, there is a humiliating and embarrassing scene showing that Rudy Giuliani is lying down and putting his hands into his trousers while seems touching his genital(Shoard, 2020). According to The Guardian, this scene is a prank against Rudy Giuliani even though, it did humiliate Rudy Giuliani and gave him a great blow on his credibility and reputation. To be more specific. In the film, a girl pretends to a journalist who intends to have an interview with Rudy Giuliani, after touching her waist and saying ‘you relax, I will relax you’, which implies a sexual implication, he lies down and makes his move on his trouser. According to the Guardian, apart from being caught red-handed on the bed, he is also an essential figure which intends to expose Biden’s scandal via stealing a laptop from his son, Hunter Bidden (Shoard, 2020). His reputation suffers a great decline due to the recent events, and also media reports that he rages at one of the hostesses who compared Rudy Giuliani to Christopher Steele, a British former intelligence agent. In the interview, the hostess mentions the accusation of abstracting information, which irritated Rudy Giuliani immediately. After the folding his elbows, he roared ‘you must be kidding me’ and then he claimed that his reputation should not be defamed since he had been ‘a United States attorney, associate attorney general, mayor of New York City and a member of the bar of 50 years’(Belam, 2020). However, this behaviour can also be regarded as a catharsis after he suffered from a great reputation decline due to joining the legal team of Donald Trump.
Back to the turning point between this century and last century, Rudy Giuliani was a figure enjoying great fame in New York. Applying the broken window theory, he led the controversial move which names as ‘civic cleanup’. This action made during his time as the mayor of New York from 1994 to 2001. According to the report, he appointed an outsider as the police commissioner in New York and started to focus on targeting the vandalism and intended to restore the order of New York. Apart from this controversial move, he also removed many sex clubs from the city centre so that the family value can be emphasised and promoted. As a result, he did reduce the criminal rate of New York, which earns him a great reputation. Furthermore, the 911 terrorist attacks which happened in 2001 is also his career’s turning point. Since the terrorist attacks shattered many lives and the safety of Americans, the mayor leadership became more important and essential at that time. Rudy Giuliani was the mayor of New York in 2001 and indeed he performed his duty in an efficient way, which makes his work appreciated by the public. After 2001, he was appraised as the heroic mayor and even was called America’s Mayor. Furthermore, Time magazine nominated him as Person of the Year 2001. However, during that time he also encounters many criticisms. According to a report by Jack Newfield, ‘after the 9/11 event, Giuliani re-emerged as an international celebrity. By all accounts, he took charge when the tower fell, and he displayed leashes when others were dumbstruck. Individuals he knew-and loved-died in the attack, and this gave him sensitivity and dedication’. Furthermore, he also was made ‘an honorary knight by the Queen of England’(Newfield, 2017). His reputation reached its peak at that time. But the black neighbourhoods still disliked him and felt they were excluded and purged from New York.
With such a victory in public and reputation, Rudy Giuliani continued his pursuit in politics and even started his business. However, after he suffered from a failure in 2008’s presidential primary election. He struggled in his careers in politics and finally chose to become President Trump’s attorney, which brought him back into the view of the Public. However, as an attorney, he was more like a spy which intended to collect information for Trump’s rival, the Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden, which caused great criticism and his reputation also suffered. And also because he did show up in the film and had some improper behaviour in front of the camera, he was requested comments by many media but he rejects them and gave an explanation in a radio interview that ‘he was only taking off his microphone and tucking in his shirt’ which seems not convincing enough to many. Furthermore, according to a CNN report, ‘one of the defendant in a federal case against associates of Rudy Giuliani pleaded guilty’, which might bring more risk on Rudy Giuliani’s career and reputation as an American attorney and have a negative influence on his credibility in public(Scannell, 2020). In a way, it might be confusing why Giuliani is willing to take risks to ruin his reputation for such taking a change in his career, but it can be certain that he may believe he will gain a larger victory if he helps Trump win the Next Presidency.
Reference
Bland, A. (2020, November 06). Rudy Giuliani：from hero of 9/11 to leader of Trump’s last stand. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/06/rudy-giuliani-from-hero-of-911-to-leader-of-trumps-last-stand
Belam, M. (2020, October 28). Angry Rudy Giuliani demands apology from Fox TV interviewer. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/28/angry-rudy-giuliani-demands-apology-from-fox-tv-interviewer.
Newfield, J. (2017, January 27). The Full Rudy: The Man, the Mayor, the Myth. The Nation. https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/full-rudy-man-mayor-myth/.
Shoard, C. (2020, October 21). Rudy Giuliani faces questions after compromising scene in new Borat film. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/oct/21/rudy-giuliani-faces-questions-after-compromising-scene-in-new-borat-film.
Scannell, K. (2020, October 29). Defendant in federal case involving Rudy Giuliani associates pleads guilty. CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/29/politics/david-correia-guilty-plea-rudy-giuliani-associate/index.html.
