From the stoic mayor who guided New York after the attack of September 11, 2001, the public image of Rudy Giuliani has suffered in recent years a spectacular decline that has led him to be beaten and ridiculed in media and social networks as a personal lawyer of Donald Trump and now the subject of investigations for alleged conspiracy with Ukrainian officials.
Your leadership role in a New York traumatized by the worst terrorist attack in history earned her the title of “Alcalde de EE.UU.” and was described over and over as a “hero”, while Queen Elizabeth II decorated him with the title of Honorary Knight of Her Majesty and Time magazine named him “person of the year” in 2001.
But this week he received the latest in a series of blows that have overshadowed his career – much of it received since he teamed up with Trump– with the FBI search of your New York residence and office, after which they seized more than half a dozen electronic devices.
THE INVESTIGATIONS ON GIULIANI AND UKRAINE
Specifically, the US authorities are trying to establish whether Giuliani illegally pressured the Government of Trump in 2019 in favor of Ukrainian officials and businessmen, who were allegedly helping the lawyer search for dirty laundry on Trump’s political rivals heading into the 2020 elections, including current president Joe Biden.
According to the media, the investigations also revolve around the controversial dismissal in 2019 of the US ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, who in October of that year hinted during an appearance before Congress that her dismissal could have to do with the financial interests in Ukraine of the partners of Giuliani.
“Obviously they hate me, and they hate Trump, which is probably the reason for all this ”, said last thursday Giuliani, 76, in his first statements after the record made by the prosecutors involved in the case, which he made on his own radio program.
“To think that I am some kind of Russian spy. Look at my career. I mean look at my past, my career,” insisted the attorney, who also became a prosecutor for the Southern District of New York in the 1980s.
In this file photo taken on Aug. 14, 2020, Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani listens as the Republican delivers his remarks to the New York City Police Benevolent Association. (Photo by JIM WATSON / AFP). (JIM WATSON /)
AN IMAGE ALREADY DAMAGED
The former mayor, however, had already lost a significant part of his bloated prestige when FBI agents searched his residence. The moment that most graphically reflected this occurred last November during one of the numerous press conferences in which he denounced the alleged irregularities of the last US elections, in which Trump, his client, lost to Biden. .
After about 40 minutes of exalted speech, in which he spoke of electoral fraud without presenting concrete evidence, brown sweat began to fall down his cheeks, something that the public attributed to some type of product that the New Yorker had used to treat to cover their gray hair.
The photos of the strange episode, which occurred shortly after the election results were known, spread like wildfire on social networks and were the source of endless memes and jokes about the lawyer, which also made headlines and covers.
“Rudy’s hair dye is going to be mistaken for petroleum. How not be careful, the US is going to invade ”, joked a Twitter user. “Being with Rudy Giuliani is so horrible that even his hair dye is trying to escape,” read another.
Hair dye drips down Rudy Giuliani’s face.
THE LONG LIST OF JOKES AT YOUR COSTA
Days before this incident, he had already starred in another organizational failure, when he held a press conference representing the Trump electoral campaign.
To the surprise of reporters present, the event took place in a dilapidated parking lot outside Philadelphia, near a crematorium and sex shop, and across from a small landscaping business called Four Seasons Total Landscaping, which his team is believed to have mistaken it for the luxurious Four Seasons hotel chain.
The embarrassing mistake was also the subject of incessant ridicule, although there was at least one beneficiary, as the small establishment began selling T-shirts and other products with humorous slogans, with which they obtained about 1.3 million dollars.
But shortly before that incident, Giuliani he had already been ridiculed in the satirical film “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen.
During the filming of the film, which follows a mockumentary format, the US president’s legal advisor gave an interview to the actress Maria Bakalova, believing that she was a journalist with whom, after completing the questionnaire, he agreed to have a drink alone in a hotel room.
There, the hidden cameras recorded him at a time when he reaches into his pants while lying on the bed in front of Bakalova, images that portrayed him as a public figure who takes advantage of his fame to maintain relationships with young women.
This week, the networks have continued to joke about the latest incident that Giuliani has experienced, the search of his residence, although this may have much more serious consequences.
“Now Giuliani will be sweating,” say numerous Twitter posts, which have once again brought up the snapshots of the dark-toned sweat, but this time the netizens have made it drip all over his face.
AN UNEXPLAINABLE DECLINE
John Bolton, Trump’s former National Security adviser, reflected on Saturday the perplexity with which public opinion is observing the rapid deterioration of the image of the politician and lawyer.
“I can not explain it. I think it’s very tragic for Rudy and his family. I can’t explain it, ”Bolton said in an interview with CNN about Giuliani’s transformation from hero to some kind of hybrid between buffoon and villain.
“But a lot of people have been hurt after partnering with Trump, because Trump only cares about himself, and I think Rudy is one of those people,” he said.