Most of the people wrapped up in President Trump’s impeachment scandal
have one thing in common:
They all have official roles with the US government.
With one big exception:
"President Trump’s personal point man, Rudy Giuliani."
"Does Rudy Giuliani have any business getting involved in US-Ukrainian politics?"
Rudy Giuliani doesn’t work for the White House, or the State Department, or the military.
He’s Donald Trump’s personal lawyer.
But he’s played a central role in US-Ukraine relations.
And he’s become one of Trump’s most loyal defenders on television:
"There’s nothing wrong with taking information from Russians."
"I don't even know if that’s a crime, colluding about Russians..."
"A campaign finance violation? Give me a break."
Rudy was once a beloved national figure.
"America’s Mayor, Rudy Giluiani!"
But today, he’s no longer mayor, and no longer widely beloved.
So how did America’s Mayor wind up here?
"What’s happened to Rudy?"
"What has happened to Rudy Giuliani?"
"What happened to Rudy?"
Some people look at this as a fall from grace.
They say, how did "America's Mayor" come to be mixed up in this kind of shady thing?
And I think, people who followed him in New York,
with a more skeptical eye, it's not surprising.
Rudy Giuliani started his career in public life in the 80s,
as the US attorney for the Southern District of New York.
As a prosecutor, Giuliani took on the mafia and Wall Street insider trading.
He was a brilliant prosecutor. There's no question about it.
I mean, he gained fame legitimately.
Andrew Kirtzman was a New York City Hall reporter when Giuliani was mayor.
He perfected the art of the perp walk,
which humiliated people who had been arrested, by having them parade before photographers.
He also knew how to get in front of the cameras himself.
Giuliani was a pioneer in using the position of US attorney to turn yourself into a media star.
"We'll really destroy the power of the mafia."
During this time, crime in New York reached historic levels.
And that led Rudy to his next act.
It was very natural that someone who had made his fame as a crime fighter,
would then run for mayor.
Giuliani became mayor of New York City in 1994.
Crime became his focus, and it fell during his administration.
But today it’s debated whether his policies actually caused that.
The crime drop started before he was in office. It continued after he left office. It was
also visible in most other major American cities. So was it really something he was
responsible for? I think it's questionable. But it's something he definitely took credit for.
But whether or not Giuliani’s approach to crime was effective, it was definitely aggressive.
His administration implemented stop and frisk, which allowed police to stop anyone and search
them for any reason.
The reduction in crime came at the expense of the African American community.
The last few years of Giuliani’s term were racked by outrage over police violence,
after men like 23-year-old Amadou Diallo and 26-year-old Patrick Dorismond were shot by
police, even though they were unarmed.
"Giuliani has to step down! Enough is enough!"
2001 was Giuliani’s last year in office, after serving two full terms.
September 11th was Election Day in New York City.
I mean, that was the day where New Yorkers were supposed to literally move on from Rudy Giuliani.
We began walking north and then suddenly the other tower imploded.
We kind of ran for our lives. It was a desperate, desperate moment.
His performance over the next few weeks and months was magnificent.
"The best way to get your children to stop being afraid, is to stop being afraid yourself."
You know his message was, we're going to do fine. We're going to be okay. And I think
that's what really resonated with people. It's like this kind of father figure who,
you know, reassured people that we were going to get through this.
Giulianni was TIME’s person of the year. He was knighted by the Queen. He couldn’t
even go to a restaurant without getting a standing ovation.
"God bless you, Rudy."
"Rudy! Rudy! Get over here Rudy!"
He was one of the most beloved men on the planet.
And what he did next, you know, in retrospect,
may not have been the best use of that situation.
Instead of staying in public life, Giuliani cashed in.
He started a company that advised cities around the world on security. He worked for countries
like Qatar and companies like Purdue Pharma.
In 2006 alone, he earned $11.4 million giving 124 different speeches.
But by 2007, he was ready to get back into politics.
He ran for president.
And for a time, he was the Republican frontrunner.
But then his campaign collapsed.
The Republican Party of 2008 wasn’t quite ready for a pro-LGBT, pro-choice, New Yorker.
Also, he might have talked about 9/11 too much.
"There’s only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun, a verb and 9/11.
I mean, there’s nothing else."
He really milked his post-9/11 celebrity for all it was worth. He was never humble about it.
It was a complete disaster, complete disaster.
He not only lost his bid for president, but also he kind of lost his 9/11 halo.
And then the question was, you know, what does he do then?
Giuliani became a regular on Fox News.
He started taking on more questionable security clients: A Ukrainian mayor. An Iranian group
once designated as a foreign terrorist organization.
But then another New Yorker ran for President.
Donald Trump and Giulliani weren’t close friends in the 90s and 2000s, but they knew
each other. They were both big figures in New York.
They did groundbreakings and parades and attended each other’s third weddings. They even did….
this?
"Donald, I thought you were a gentleman!"
But in 2016, they were suddenly useful to each other.
Trump did not have a lot of Republican friends. And Giuliani wanted a path back to power.
Giuliani endorsed Trump right before the New York primary
and he became an important supporter.
"What I did for New York, Donald Trump will do for America!"
This is also when he also started showing a willingness to share conspiracy theories.
"Go online and put down, Hillary Clinton illness, take a look at the videos for yourself."
But then the entire Trump campaign almost ended.
The Washington Post published a video of Trump saying vulgar things about women.
"Donald Trump and a fight for political survival."
Lots of Republicans abandoned or distanced themselves from Trump.
"I’m out. I can no longer endorse Donald Trump for president."
Giuliani stepped up.
"I know Donald Trump for almost 30 years. Doesn’t reflect the man that I know.
He’s always dealt with women with great respect."
It was Giuliani who stood by him and Trump appreciated that.
"Donald Trump wins the presidency."
"Rudy, get up here."
After Trump won, it looked like Giuliani’s loyalty would pay off.
There were rumors that he might be Secretary of State.
It turned out that congressional Republicans were not excited about this idea.
Giuliani’s work with shady foreign clients over the years turned out to be a bad look.
So he went back to his law firm. Until Trump needed a lawyer.
Then Michael Cohen gets arrested, his offices get raided,
and suddenly, the job of quote-unquote "personal attorney,
but for Trumpworld that's always meant a kind of weird sort of "fixer" role,
opens up. Giuliani takes it.
He told the New York Times “the last year and a half I haven’t been on television.
Frankly, I’ve missed it.”
Giuliani became Trump’s personal attorney in April 2018.
At some point after that, he heard about a conservative media theory involving Democratic
presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, and Ukraine.
"It’s a case that is crying out to be investigated."
It seems like it was Giuliani who picked up this connection,
from elsewhere in the conservative universe,
and then brought it as a proposition to Trump.
I don't think we know that for an absolute certainty.
But Giuliani is very involved in conservative media, and it seems to have
been sort of his proposition to kind of get back in the game.
But Trump bought into the idea. Testimony in the impeachment hearings revealed that
he started directing US officials to work with Guiliani on getting Ukraine to announce
an investigation of Biden.
"Mr. Giuliani demanded that Ukraine make a public statement announcing the investigations.
And we knew these investigations were important to the president."
"When this impeachment happens, the two most responsible people for it are number one,
Donald Trump, and number two, Rudy Giuliani."
Today, Giuliani is still Trump’s personal lawyer.
But his work in Ukraine has made Trump the third president to ever be impeached.
And Giuliani is being investigated by the US attorney for the Southern District of New York:
the same position that he once held.
Rudy Giuliani has always wanted to be the center of attention and always has had this
knack for making himself the center of attention.
He's had several opportunities in his life to just sort of back away. Be rich, do paid
speaking and sort of ride off into the sunset.
He wants to be important, he wants to be involved.
Whether that's a longshot presidential run, whether that's being a Trump surrogate
after this incredibly embarrassing videotape,
or whether it's getting involved in some kind of nefarious international crimes,
he always wants to get back in the action.