After years of being criticised for exploiting the September 11 terrorist attacks for political gain, former NY mayor Rudi Giuliani has stunned the world by appearing to forget the deadliest worldwide terrorist attack in history. Giuliani clearly didn’t “forget” about 9/11 after just having spoken about it at length; he just didn’t feel the event warranted inclusion in what he described as an increasing number of attacks linked to Islamic fundamentalists that have occurred in recent years (i.e., during the Obama administration).
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Rudy Giuliani wound up with egg on his face Monday when, while introducing Donald Trump in Youngstown, Ohio, he bizarrely claimed that Islamic terrorists had never attacked the United States until after President Obama was elected in 2008. “They all started when Clinton and Obama got into office”, Giuliani said during a campaign stop for Donald Trump. Giuliani was the New York City mayor from January 1, 1994, until December 31, 2001.
Though Giuliani governed the nation’s largest city as a moderate Republican, who moved much further to the right when he welcomed Bush to NY for the 2004 Republican National Convention and as he mounted an ill-fated 2008 presidential bid.
“What he should have said is, most people come across the border for economic reasons”, Giuliani explained.
For a man once accused of forming every sentence with a noun, a verb and 9/11, it was a serious omission.
“I didn’t forget 9/11”, said Giuliani. “They attacked the World Trade Center in 1993”, Giuliani said.
Although the Twitter jokes focus on Giuliani “forgetting” 9/11, it’s almost impossible that he actually forgot the terror attacks when he made that statement. However, he still raised concerns when he appeared to contradict Trump’s primary campaign argument that Jeb Bush was “pathetic for saying nothing happened during your brother’s term when the World Trade Center was attacked and came down”. And what have they left us?
“While Donald Trump was building a reality TV show, my brother was building a security apparatus to keep us safe”, Bush said, ignoring the 2,996 people who died on September 11. And they didn’t start it even in 2001. Then again, he did say back in 2010 that “we had no domestic attacks under Bush”, so maybe he meant it.
Giuliani has been pursuing this odd case for quite some time.
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If there’s one thing we’ve learned about Mr. Giuliani over the years, it’s that he is willing to create a narrative that is patently false, in order to appeal a political base that is ready and able to suspend any and all disbelief.
