Yes, Rudy, You Might Actually Be an Idiot
Rudy Giuliani, a
former prosecutor, should be aware that his behavior this week is strikingly in
line with that of a co-conspirator. Caught
at the center of this week’s impeachment
inquiry announcement over the president’s efforts to extort Ukrainian officials in
exchange for help getting reelected, Giuliani certainly is not doing himself—or
his client, Donald Trump—any favors by speaking out.
Given the legal mess he’s helped to create—and the fact that
he makes things worse every time he opens his mouth—you’d think the former New
York City mayor would be more cautious about what he says and does. Nope.
The Washington Post
discovered that Giuliani was
scheduled to participate on Tuesday in a
two-day conference in Armenia
organized by the Eurasian Economic Union. The EEU was created
by Russian President Vladimir Putin to counter the European Union. Putin
himself is scheduled to attend.
Equally troubling, the panel Giuliani was supposed to
participate on, in a paid speaking engagement, will be moderated by Sergey
Glazyev, a Putin insider and possible successor who is under U.S. economic
sanctions because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Forget optics—this is just dumb.
And brazen.
Giuliani canceled his attendance at the event after the Post published a story about it on
Friday. That seems to be a pattern.
According to the conference’s
agenda, which is online in English, Giuliani appears to be the only
American who was scheduled to speak. Equally laughable, he was supposed to talk
about “Digital financial technologies – new opportunities for integrating
payment systems of the Eurasian continent in transport Logistics.” Right in his wheelhouse!
Someone should ask him about the new developments in transport
logistics in Kazakhstan next time he’s on TV.
I find it hard to believe that Giuliani would have anything
meaningful to contribute on this subject, given that in a recent
interview with The Atlantic’s Elaina
Plott, “his most pressing concern” the last time Plott talked to him four
weeks ago was “that he had been locked out of his Instagram account.” Luckily,
the three-time winner of Reddit’s “Miss Deplorable” contest was there to assist
him. I wish I were making this up.
The Post explains
what the EEU is:
It is the brainchild of Putin and was created in response to
democratic upheavals taking place at the time in former Soviet countries. Putin
has aimed to use the group to establish Russia as a bulwark against Europe and
a center of gravity in the former Soviet region, describing the EEU as “a new
supranational union that could become one of the poles of the modern world.”
In 2012, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the
group part of an effort to “re-Sovietize the region.”
Jesus, Rudy. If Putin and Trump’s personal lawyer bumped
into each other at the conference, I wonder what they would talk about.
At any rate, Giuliani has wisely decided to cancel. Although
the conference is only days away, he claimed to have been unaware what it was
about, or that Putin will be there.
He didn’t cancel, however, because it was a stupid thing to
do in the first place, but rather because it would become fodder for criticism
by members of the news media.
“I’m not an idiot,” he told the Post. “I know you all are going after me. I know what you guys are
doing with this.”
At least he finally seems to have found some situational
awareness. I’m not sure he’s correct, though, about not being an idiot.