Lest there is any doubt that Rudy Giuliani has dropped all his filters and now feels perfectly free to express the racism he has always felt, his remarks at a recent trade association dinner should erase them forever.
Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was invited to a financial services trade group’s award dinner last week to speak about leadership—but instead delivered a political speech that strayed so far from that topic the group felt it necessary to apologize to its guests.
On Monday, the Commercial Finance Association sent out an email apologizing for the “unscripted personal opinions” that Giuliani, a prominent supporter and close adviser to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, shared with the crowd at their 40 Under 40 dinner at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.
“At CFA’s 40 Under 40 Awards last Thursday night, keynote speaker Rudolph Giuliani veered sharply off course from the leadership message he agreed to deliver and presented unscripted personal opinions which were independent of CFA’s political position or core values,” Bob Trojan, the group’s CEO, wrote in an email sent to attendees and forwarded to the Observer. “While we, the event organizers, made every attempt to direct Mr. Giuliani’s remarks ahead of time to focus on leadership, for which he is renowned and has authored a book, there is always the possibility of such a surprise at a live event.”
The note continued: “For those of you who were offended by Mr. Giuliani’s remarks, please accept my sincere apology.”
His remarks were predictably Trumpian:
“Rudy talked about immigration and made a really, really inappropriate comment about the quote-unquote Mexicans in the kitchen at the Waldorf,” the attendee said. “It was bad. You could hear a pin drop. I think he was looking for applause.”
Apparently Giuliani is now pretty toxic to groups other than the KKK and StormFront crowd. His planned speech at the International Council of Shopping Centers was axed over concerns that he would say something offensive during his speech.
But really, this is Giuliani without the pig lipstick. He's always been a racist jerk, going all the way back to the days when David Dinkins was mayor. Trump's lack of any consideration for others has now given him permission to express himself plainly and clearly.
