Speaker 1: Rudy Giuliani appeared to admit how in the 1993 mayoral election in New York
City, which he won.
He used what he calls a trick to suppress the Hispanic vote, except for the life of
me.
I can't actually understand what the hell he's talking about because undocumented immigrants
can't vote.
They can't register to vote.
They're not citizens.
So the back story on this election is that Rudy Giuliani won the 1993 New York City mayoral
election by about 50,000 votes, and he became the first Republican elected mayor of New
York City at that point since John Lindsay in 1965.
John Lindsay in 65 was a Republican then.
It was a bunch of Democrats in New York City as mayor.
And then we got Rudy Giuliani in 1993.
So we're going to take a look at a clip.
Giuliani is on, I guess this is Steve Bannon's show, and he's sitting between Steve Bannon
and Cory Lake, and he explains the trick that they used.
Okay.
Take a listen to this.
Speaker 2: It created a deterrent effect.
The fact that we did it and John and I were talking about that today, the fact that we
were doing it, we made it very public that we were doing it.
And then I'll tell you, one little dirty trick or a little dirty, dirty trick in New York.
Sorry, Your dirty trick in New York, I'm sure by Republicans, children around by Republicans
on their dirty tricks.
How about this?
Okay.
So they went through each poll, which is all Hispanic, and they gave out.
They gave out.
They gave out little cards.
And the card said, if you come to vote, make sure you have your green card because it has
a picking up illegal.
Oh, my gosh.
So the they are the real vanguard.
After the election, the Clinton Civil Rights Division investigated me.
I was on vacation after the election.
And I get a call from my lawyer, Danny Young, and he says, Rudy, we got the Justice Department's
investigating us.
Janet Reno is coming after us.
We violated civil rights, I said.
Jenny, you're a lawyer.
Think about it.
What civil rights do with L.A.? They don't have civil rights, but we all we did is prevent
people who can't vote from voting.
Yeah, maybe we tricked them.
The trick tricking is not a crime.
Oh, and in those days, we didn't have crazy prosecutors.
Nowadays, they probably prosecute you for even though it is.
And that's the way we come down the Hispanic vote.
Speaker 1: What a powerful story, huh?
How Rudy miraculously, heroically and bravely suppress the Hispanic vote in 1993.
Now there's two stories.
Is this a logical strategy and did it actually happen?
So the one issue with it as a strategy, of course, is undocumented immigrants can't vote.
They can't register to vote.
So I guess the idea here was.
Even if you're like, I actually don't understand whether this is the thing where they wrongly
believe undocumented immigrants vote.
Because remember, undocumented immigrants can't even get on the voter rolls because
only citizens can vote.
Do they wrongly believe undocumented immigrants are voting?
Or is the idea that they wanted to trick legal immigrants into thinking, If I don't bring
documentation that I'm here illegally, they might just because of my appearance, think
I'm here illegally, and if I don't have my papers on me, then all of a sudden I'll get
in trouble and I won't be able to vote.
So that sounds complicated, so I'll just stay home.
It's actually hard to know exactly what the idea is, but it does seem as though this was
a thing.
I reviewed some documents.
There is a document From what?
From the Department of Justice, from contemporaneous to when this was going on, which says the
Department of Justice and the FBI are conducting an investigation to determine who prepared
and posted these notices.
And this refers to, again, you go back to a 1993 Washington Post article.
It says, Justice said to be probing New York voter suppression.
Justice Department officials are investigating complaints of efforts to keep voting down
in Democratic leaning minority neighborhoods in the New York City mayoral election.
According to sources involved, Black Mayor David Dinkins, Democrat, was defeated by Republican
challenger Rudolph Giuliani in a in a contest that produced perhaps the most racially polarized
voting pattern in the city's history.
Among the complaints are the placing of signs on telephone poles and walls in Latino areas,
warning, quote, Federal authorities and immigration officials will be at all election sites.
Immigration officials will be at locations to arrest and deport undocumented illegal
voters.
This is the key line.
It is unclear how the signs would intimidate naturalized U.S. citizens, the only immigrants
eligible to vote.
So the article accurately identifies you're going to intimidate people who can't vote
anyway.
Now with what is it, 30 years of hindsight, we now understand where this went.
1993, Rudy did this in the New York City mayoral, 1994, this new wave of Gingrich Republicanism
took over the House of Representatives.
And it's been a path from that to where we are today.
Republicans that blame society's problems on scapegoats, immigrants from Latin America
being a very popular one.
They've now shifted to, well, we'll blame it on transpeople, Marxists who don't exist
or whatever else the case may be.
But it's all that same idea and you can find it Back then.
The he he's telling us that he did it.
He's admitting to the entire thing.
And it is wild and wacky stuff.