-Rudy Giuliani's defenders
are claiming the FBI raids of his home and office
are part of a conspiracy
by the Biden administration to target him,
even though the investigation started
during the Trump administration.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
♪♪
I should warn you that we are standing by
for some breaking news and we're ready, at any moment,
for NBC to cut into this program for live coverage
of what could be an earth-shattering event
because, over the weekend, a few days after the FBI
raided his home and office, Rudy Giuliani told reporters
that he was about to drop a major bombshell.
-Mr. Mayor. What do you think about's going on?
-People want a statement about this whole thing.
I'll break something really big
later this afternoon
in Weehawken, New Jersey.
[ Laughter ]
-Hmm?
Oh! Oh, we're still on?
I assumed NBC News had cut in for live coverage
of Rudy's announcement from Weehawken,
only to report that Rudy was actually in Piscataway
and got confused because both Weehawken and Piscataway
remind him of taking a leak.
[ Laughter ] [ As Johnny Carson ] Weehawken.
[ Fresh laughter ]
You know, you know, Wally, you know how
you get to Piscataway? -No.
-Go piss that-a-way.
[ Laughter ]
[ Regular voice ] I'm guessing the Weehawken thing
was not actually a real tease for a press conference
because Rudy was also holding the biography
of Alexander Hamilton that inspired the hit musical
and Weehawken is where the duel
between Hamilton and Aaron Burr took place.
I'm guessing Rudy has some secret information
that proves Hamilton actually won the duel.
[ As Giuliani ] And, now I'm going to turn it over to my ballistics expert,
Mike Lindell.
[ As Lindell ] We have proof that Hamilton
was wearing a pillow under his shirt
and everyone knows a bullet
can't go through a pillow.
Well, it can't go through a MyPillow.
[ As Giuliani ] Thanks, Mike. You can go.
[ As Lindell ] But I don't got anywhere to go.
[ Laughter ] Of course, it's also possible
Rudy picked up the book
thinking it was a giant stack of $10 bills.
[ As Giuliani ] Oh, Rudy!
You're gonna be rich!
Driver, take me to Tavern on the Green.
Tell them to give me my usual table,
out back behind the Dumpster.
One of the raccoons has some dirt on Joe Biden.
In fact, Rudy was apparently holding the book
because he's supposedly in the process of filming
some sort of documentary special about Hamilton.
-Following the FBI raid of his home and office,
Donald Trump's former attorney is pushing back
on the quick-developing story of his potential crimes
and has found the time to shoot
a Hamilton documentary.
-Today, we're filming the places in New York
that Alexander Hamilton
really stayed, really went, really lived.
-A Hamilton documentary?
Way to strike while the iron is
ice cold.
Of course, knowing Rudy, there's a good chance
Rudy's outside Lin-Manuel Miranda's house
with a film crew right now.
[ As Giuliani ] And this is where Hamilton learned to rap,
or, as Hamilton himself famously put it, this is --
♪ The room where it took place ♪
[ Laughter ] Now, let's see if we can get inside.
Mr. Hamilton!
It's the FBI! We have a warrant! This is perfectly legal.
Somebody just did it to me last week.
[ Laughter ] Rudy sounds like
some Upper East Side scam artist
who does walking tours for out-of-towners,
but doesn't actually know what he's talking about.
[ As Giuliani ] Okay, today we're going to all the places
where Alexander really stayed, really went, really lived.
Over here, for example, is a Famous Ray's Pizza,
which is famous for the time Hamilton went in and said,
"You know, I don't think I could eat a whole pizza.
Would you guys maybe sell me a slice?"
And that's how, you know, that whole industry got started.
In fact, during his little press conference
about his Hamilton documentary, Rudy claimed
Hamilton would agree with him on at least one thing.
-We're going to remind the whole world
New York was the first capital
of the United States.
And you know what Hamilton would agree with me on?
It's the capital of the world.
[ Laughter ] [ As Giuliani ] You can see I'm reading it.
I got bookmarks.
I love that, when things get bad for Rudy,
he always falls back on, "New York City, baby!"
But that ship has sailed, pal.
You're never going to be in a Yankees commercial again.
They're not going to have a smiling picture of you
giving a thumbs-up at JFK.
Your voice isn't going to play
when people get into New York City taxis.
[ As Giuliani ] This is former Mayor Rudy Giuliani
reminding you to buckle up for safety.
And also, that ghosts voted in Pennsylvania,
which is the only reason Joe Biden won.
[ Laughter ] And I know New York City discontinued
celebrity messages in cabs in 2003,
but I feel like Rudy's the kind of guy
who would record them on cassettes
and then just leave them in the backseat.
Now, Rudy's been doing a lot of friendly media,
telling his side of the story, but, on multiple occasions,
including on his own podcast and in those interviews,
he's seemingly gone out of his way
to implicate his former boss, Donald Trump.
-I mean, the documents they seized,
easily, half of them involve my representation
of the president of the United States as a lawyer.
-Yeah, and he's also under multiple
criminal investigations. I don't think that sounds
as exculpatory as you think it does.
[ As Giuliani ] I'm not corrupt. I was just working,
day and night, for someone who was corrupt.
And I know what he's saying, which is a lot
of the communications and documents are covered
by attorney-client privilege, which I get, and that's true.
But I'm not sure everything on Rudy's devices
was covered by attorney-client privilege,
since, you know, he went on TV and read it aloud to everyone.
-I never talked [ Laughing ] to a Ukrainian official
until the State Department called me
and asked me to do it.
And then, I reported every conversation back to them.
It's all here, right here,
the first call from the State Department.
Here's Kurt saying, "Great. I will tell Yermak
and he'll visit with you there. Thanks."
Mr. Mayor, how was your meeting with Andriy?
Do you have time for a call?
Best, Kurt."
They were all over me,
you know, asking me to do it.
I was happy to do it.
-I'm no legal expert, but I'm pretty sure
attorney-client privilege goes away
when you read the documents aloud on national television.
[ As Giuliani ] Okay, you're all my clients!
It's like the dumb-criminal version
of your grandma reading you a funny meme
she came across on Facebook.
[ New York accent ] Look, Gladys sent this to me.
It's a picture of a grandma and the caption says,
'Do emails get delivered on Sundays?'
Isn't that great?
That Gladys.
I swear, all her bones are funny bones.
Now, in case you don't remember --
and I really hope, for the sake of your mental health,
that you don't -- this whole thing
apparently revolves around a scheme cooked up
by Rudy and his gang of weirdos
to dig up dirt on the Bidens during the election
and extort Ukraine, in order to get that dirt,
which is what Trump was impeached for the first time.
Rudy tried to get the then-ambassador to Ukraine,
Marie Yovanovitch, pushed out
because he saw her as an obstacle to his scheme,
and that's what the feds are reportedly investigating.
And, by the way, Rudy has basically
already admitted to that.
-I do not understand
Mr. Giuliani's motives for attacking me,
nor can I offer an opinion on whether he believed
the allegations he spread about me.
Clearly, no one at the State Department did.
When I returned to the United States,
Deputy Secretary of State Sullivan
told me there had been a concerted campaign against me.
-This hit piece -- and it's a hit piece --
-Of course. -also has you on the record,
admitting that you forced out Marie Yovanovich.
-Of course I did. -You said you needed her
out of the way. But you're a personal attorney
for the president, so why do you need her out of the way?
-I didn't need her out of the way.
I forced her out because she's corrupt.
-It's nice when the confession comes before the indictment.
Usually, you have to arrest a suspect, first,
get them in an interrogation room,
and start grilling them. Rudy just shows up, saying --
[ As Giuliani ] You want the truth?
You can't handle the truth.
We do want the truth, but, sheesh,
we don't even have our pens out.
And, by the way, it's amazing that these guys are so corrupt,
they're still being investigated for what they were accused of
during Trump's first impeachment trial,
which, if I'm remembering correctly,
was approximately eight hundred years ago.
In fact, last week, Rudy brought it up
out of nowhere when he tweeted...
Sorry, wait. So the Trump Justice Department,
run by William Barr, searched your iCloud
during your impeachment defense of Trump?
So it was Trump trying to arrest you this whole time?
[ As Trump ] You got to put him behind bars,
otherwise, he's going to keep calling me
and inviting me on this
Hamilton Walking Tour.
He also says he has a new Abraham Lincoln Walking Tour,
but I think he just wants to go to four different Scores,
even though they closed seven years ago.
[ Laughter ]
And yet, Rudy claimed, on Fox News last week,
that the raid, which, again, is part of an investigation
that started when Trump was president,
was somehow a plot orchestrated
by Biden and the Democrats to target him.
-Joe Biden says he didn't know
that this raid was coming.
Do you take that at face value?
-Maybe he doesn't remember.
I'm not sure if he can retain anything
for more than about, you know, the time it takes to read it.
-Yeah, sure, dude, Biden's the senile one, here.
You're the one butt-dialing reporters,
only using the top Crest strip,
and wandering around the streets of New York,
telling people you're filming a TV special about Hamilton.
Every time you do an interview,
you look like an ailing grandfather
having a flashback to the war during a family gathering.
[ As Giuliani ] I cheated on my wife.
I have to tell Father Mulcahy!
"M-A-S-H."
[ Laughter ]
I mean, what would you consider senile,
not knowing the name of the person you're talking to?
-Also, Hunter, I am a lawyer.
-[ Laughing ] Oh, boy, when Grandpa starts calling you
by his dead wife's name,
it's time to give him an Ambien and put him to bed.
Just make sure to give him a bedpan,
in case he has to take a... [ As Carson ] Piscataway.
[ Laughter ]
Did you hear me, Wally?
[ Laughter ]
-Yes.
[ Laughter ]
-The Rudy story is, among other things,
a reminder of just how corrupt and paranoid
the Republican Party and its right-wing apparatus still are.
They see themselves as above the law
and they consider any attempt to hold them accountable
a shadowy plot by their political opponents,
even though it was Trump's own DOJ
that started the investigation into Rudy.
I don't know if the feds will arrest Rudy or not,
but, if they're looking for him,
they can probably find him...
-Later this afternoon
in Weehawken, New Jersey.
-This has been "A Closer Look."
♪♪
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