7 Wildest Quotes From Rudy Giuliani’s Boozy Interview With New York Magazine
President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani granted an interview over Bloody Marys to New York magazine correspondent Olivia Nuzzi this week, over the course of which he reportedly questioned the Jewishness of George Soros, pondered the mental state of impeachment hearing witnesses, discussed his drinking habits, dribbled, and said his “attitude” about his legacy is: “fuck it.”
George Soros “is hardly a Jew”
After claiming US Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch was “controlled” by billionaire George Soros, Giuliani remarked, “Don’t tell me I’m anti-Semitic if I oppose him… Soros is hardly a Jew.”
“I’m more of a Jew than Soros is,” he continued, adding, “I probably know more about — he doesn’t go to church, he doesn’t go to religion — synagogue. He doesn’t belong to a synagogue, he doesn’t support Israel, he’s an enemy of Israel. He’s elected eight anarchist DA’s in the United States. He’s a horrible human being.”
Giuliani also claimed Soros is “employing the FBI agents,” prompting Nuzzi to remark that he “sounded crazy.”
Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman “look like Miami people”
Giuliani was asked his business associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, who were arrested and indicted in October for campaign finance violations, and played a central role in the Trump-Ukraine scandal. He explained the relationship in an interesting way: “They look like Miami people. I know a lot of Miami people that look like that that are perfectly legitimate and act like them.”
“My attitude about my legacy is fuck it”
In response to those questioning what Giuliani — once known as “America’s Mayor — is doing to his legacy, Giuliani replied, “And my attitude about my legacy is fuck it.”
“I’m a partier”
At one point in the interview, Giuliani spoke of allegations that he is on drugs or an alcoholic. He said, sarcastically: “Oh yeah, yeah — I do a lot of drugs… There was one I was addicted to. I’ve forgotten what it is. I don’t know where the drug things come from — I really don’t.”
“The alcohol comes from the fact that I did occasionally drink. I love scotch. I can’t help it. All of the malts. And part of it is cigars — I love to have them with cigars,” he explained, concluding, “I’m a partier.”
“If they’re investigating me, they’re assholes”
On the Southern District of New York, which Giuliani once led as a prosecutor in New York, he commented, “If they’re investigating me, they’re assholes. They’re absolutely assholes if they’re investigating me.”
It was around this moment, according to Nuzzi, that Giuliani started to dribble.
“When his mouth closed, saliva leaked from the corner and crawled down his face through the valley of a wrinkle,” she wrote. “He didn’t notice, and it fell onto his sweater.”
“How do we know” an impeachment hearing witness “isn’t a paranoid schizophrenic?”
Giuliani gave some insights into his gifts with character assassination in the interview when speaking of the U.S. diplomat David Holmes who claims he overheard a phone call in which Trump discussed Ukraine investigations he wanted with U.S. Ambassador Gordon Sondland: “The guy that overheard the telephone call… Anybody check if the guy has an ear piece? Maybe he didn’t have it in. How old is he? How old is that guy? … How do we know he isn’t a paranoid schizophrenic? … How do we know he isn’t an alcoholic?”
“Look at those poor people”
While Nuzzi rode in Giuliani’s SUV, the former mayor of New York spotted a couple on a bench and remarked, “When I was mayor, by the time I was home, there’d be a call to the head of Homeless Services. Have somebody on Fifth between 70 — is that 75 or 76? A couple, they seem to be freezing. See if we can get them in a shelter. All my commissioners were trained to do that. And we got it down to almost nothing, zero.”
“The couple on the bench,” Nuzzi wrote, “did not appear to be homeless.”
