September 12, 2020

On the day before the 19th anniversary of September 11th, Rudy Giuliani's close associate was sanctioned by the Treasury Department for being a Russian agent interfering in a United States presidential election.

According to The Washington Post:

The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday placed sanctions on a member of Ukraine’s parliament for running an “influence campaign” against former vice president Joe Biden, dubbing the lawmaker “an active Russian agent for over a decade” who has maintained “close connections with Russian intelligence services.”

The sanctions against Andriy Derkach — who in an attempt to tarnish the Democratic nominee for president released pilfered and edited phone conversations that Biden had years ago with Ukraine’s leadership — come less than two months before the 2020 presidential election and mark the most aggressive public action the U.S. government has taken to date to stanch foreign interference ahead of the vote.

And Giuliani had met with him at least three times, publicizing him and his theories, and "elevating what the Treasury Department has now characterized as a foreign interference campaign by an active Russian agent aimed at influencing the 2020 election."

On AM Joy, Jonathan Capehart interviewed Rudy Giuliani, and it was exactly as big a sh*tshow as you would expect. Within the first few minutes, Giuliani was permitted to spew lies and conspiracy theories, throwing out the lazy anti-Semitism of blaming everything on George Soros, spitting outlandish lies about Mueller prosecutors wiping their cell phones clean, and denying he had the capacity to know of Derkach's ties to Russia.

Throw in a soupçon of blatant racist condescension, and you have the results of Rudy being challenged by a respected Black journalist. Things, perhaps, got off on the wrong foot when Capehart asked him straight up, "So why were you working with a Russian agent to interfere in the 2020 election?"

LOL

Of course, Giuliani denies he was working with him. He says he was just "interviewing" him. Uh-huh.

GIULIANI: I wasn't working with him. I was interviewing him. There's a big difference between working with someone and interviewing them and also it was long after I completed my report on the Ukranian crimes that were committed. I submitted that five months earlier to the state department. So Derkach played no role in that, not a single bit, nor does he have any evidence about Joe Biden. The evidence that he has is all secondary. He read the prosecutor's report so he's a useless witness for that point of view but he did provide evidence about $5.3 billion in foreign aid that's unaccounted for in Ukraine. Three billion of which is American money for which two people have already been indicted by the Ukranian government and I have no reason to believe that's untrue. But I don't have to verify it either. It looks like it is true that about $5 billion in American foreign aid is unaccounted for. The Ukranian government had covered it up under Poroshenko, who was a well known crook. That's why he got dismissed in the election, virtually destroyed and right now for the first time there may be a chance we can recover that money. They just indicted two people that are very close to George Soros, they actually work with George Soros--

See, now, at that point, a lot of us wished Capehart had just cut of his mic with a sad trombone playing, and the game show host's, "I'm sorry, we have these lovely parting gifts for you. Please try again tomorrow." But he didn't, and the scene devolved from there.

When Giuliani claimed unbelievably that he didn't know Derkach was a Russian agent, Capehart was incredulous, asking how that was possible, given Giuliani's background. See, now, being challenged twice was too much for "America's Mayor," so he went to that place where all white men go as another way to oppress marginalized folks: the tone policing road.

GIULIANI: Jonathan, calm down. I --

CAPEHART: Answer the question.

GIULIANI: I do not have access -- don't yell at me, Jonathan. That isn't dignified. Pretend to give fair coverage. Pretend. I know you won't cover the obstruction of justice by the 12 Mueller prosecutors who wiped their phones clean.

Okay, first of all, never, NEVER in the history of EVER has telling someone to "calm down" produced the effect of calming them down. And secondly, where on god's green earth does Giuliani get off thinking HE gets to tell JONATHAN CAPEHART what constitutes dignified??? I mean, if anything, Capehart wasn't challenging ENOUGH to Giuliani, and I wish he'd said MORE to counteract those lies, but dignified??? Capehart is dignity PERSONIFIED throughout that entire interview, and Giuliani is a sniveling troll who eats Trump's ass for breakfast, while they're both wearing Klan hoods.

Please, please, don't give this Giuliani loon any more airtime.

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