If you intend to put the wood to former prosecutor, former 2-time Mayor of New York City and successful businessman Rudy Giuliani, you better bring more than Major Garrett did yesterday morning on Face The Nation.
Garrett, guest-hosting the show, started his interview by challenging Giuliani\’s contention that “President Obama contributed to a rhetorical atmosphere about hating American police.” Garrett first invoked a “fact check” from the Washington Post, then informed Giuliani that “I cover the president every single day. I have never detected anything that comes along the line of propaganda urging the country to hate police”, and ended with the challenge, “Do you want to recast that or take that back?”
Talk about effing with the wrong guy.
Here is how the conversation went after that:
GIULIANI:Oh, not at all.
Ithink you missed one very important point. He has had Al Sharpton tothe White House 80, 85 times. Often, when he\’s talking about policeissues, he has Al Sharpton sitting next to him. If you would like tohave poster boy for hating the police, it\’s Al Sharpton.
Youmake Al Sharpton a close adviser, you are going to turn the police inAmerica against you. You\’re going to tell the police in America, wedon\’t understand you. I saw this man help cause riots in New York. Ihave heard his anti-police invective firsthand. To have a man whohasn\’t paid $4 million in taxes, have a man who has spent his careerhelping to create riots, phony stories about police, to have that mansitting next to you speaks volumes.
Youknow, actions speak louder than words. You put Al Sharpton next toyou, you just told everyone, I\’m against the police.
GARRETT:But what about the president\’s rhetoric itself? Do you still believethe president\’s rhetoric, not…
(CROSSTALK)
GIULIANI:His rhetoric…
GARRETT:Go ahead.
GIULIANI:Well, look, who you associate with is part of your rhetoric.
IfI was talking to you about ending the mafia, as I did in the 1980s,or fighting the mafia, and I had Joe Colombo sitting next to me, youwould say I was a big hypocrite, wouldn\’t you? It wouldn\’t matterwhat my rhetoric was. Oh, I\’m fighting the mafia. There\’s JoeColombo.
I\’mfor the police and there is Al Sharpton? Every cop in America isgoing to say, give me a break. I get the point, Mr. President. Hisinterference in the Gates affair, the fact that he pays greatattention to these so-called racial incidents, some of which are notracial incidents, sends representatives to funerals of people whowere killed in the commission of committing a crime, and I haven\’theard him make very strong comments about the deaths of Ramos and Liuto that extent.
So,I think the “Washington Post” fact-checking wassubstantially inaccurate. And they missed the one big point, AlSharpton.
GARRETT:Interesting.
Yep. “Interesting.” As in “I thought I had a gotcha moment, but, whoops, I was the one gotcha\’ed”
My favorite line? The one about mafia mobster Joe Colombo – especially keeping in mind that, while an Associate Attorney General of the USA, Rudy Giuliani, himself Italian, was the mafia\’s worst nightmare. Read this to see just how badly he devastated New York City\’s five mafia families.
Rudy Giuliani was a spectacular prosecutor, and a great Mayor. Given his background, you might think that a talking head who tosses out a ridiculous challenge would be no problem at all for him.
And, as Major Garrett proved, you\’d be right.
