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How strong is Rudy Giuliani’s loyalty to Donald Trump?

David Pakman Host of The David Pakman Show
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Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump’s ex-lawyer, remains in the white hot spotlight of the U.S. House Select Committee investigating the Capitol riots. His future is a real question mark.

Many are now wondering, is it in the end Giuliani who will turn on Trump and potentially be Trump’s undoing reputationally?

At one time, Rudy Giuliani was an American hero. In the aftermath of 9/11, as New York City’s mayor, he provided what the Big Apple needed to recover from the horror of the terrorist attacks. He was known as a centrist, moderate Republican. Even Democrats admired him, and he had a high approval rating, which is a pretty big deal for any NYC mayor.

Boy, how things have changed. We’ve seen his home raided, his office raided, his law license suspended, and his name on a subpoena.

 His lawyer – remember, MAGA really stands for making attorneys get attorneys – Rudy’s lawyer has been negotiating the scope of the subpoena and whether he may be able to comply with some of those requests. His appearance has for now been rescheduled. And we don’t yet have a new date, but this is a guy who almost certainly knows where the bodies are buried.

And the question now becomes: Is he going to prioritize self-preservation above all else? 

Giuliani’s former client is someone who knows a bit about self-preservation. Donald Trump places a premium on other people’s loyalty to him, but he doesn’t guarantee it in return, especially when his own fortune and fame are on the line.

People who were loyal to Trump up until, and even beyond the end, I mean, when Rudy was flying around the country with Jenna Ellis, holding these court hearings, where they would talk about supposed evidence of fraud that sometimes involved the van showing up without the right lunch for the election workers or whatever the case may be, that is above and beyond.

And ultimately you still see Trump abandon these people for the most part. Now with Rudy Giuliani, he doesn’t seem to have fully abandoned him. He, generally speaking, still says when asked, Rudy’s a good guy, and the big lie is real. We really did win the election, which they didn’t. And he hasn’t fully abandoned Rudy Giuliani yet. But you would think that maybe he’d be paying for Rudy’s legal fees, and as far as has been reported, he is not.

And what you have to remember about Trump is: he doesn’t really have friends in the way most normal people do. He has people that have a useful life, and this applies to Rudy Giuliani; this applies to Mitch McConnell. 

This applies to his own voters, right? For a while, Trump’s voters were useful to him because he needed their vote. And then in the immediate aftermath of the November 2020 election, Trump’s voters were useful to him because he wanted their money supposedly for flipping results, but it was really to pay off Trump’s campaign debt. And now they’re not really–none of these people are really useful to Trump anymore.

And, some part of me thinks this even applies to Trump’s own family. I believe Trump would let his kids go to prison if it saved him from it. And from everything I’ve seen, that is exactly the picture that I get. 

Doesn’t leave much hope for the Trump-Giuliani relationship, does it?

All right. Let’s talk about Rudy Giuliani today. Rudy Giuliani was a strong supporter of Donald Trump’s for many years. He was one of Donald Trump’s lawyers for a period of time. 

And if you didn’t know the serious negative influence that Rudy Giuliani has had on the United States over the last many years, you’d almost start to feel bad for the guy, you know, mid-seventies, getting to be in his late seventies, financially not doing super well as a result of the legal trouble that he’s having, humiliated the world over, not only, I mean, listen. Yeah. 

When he went to these hearings, these fraud hearings and, and experienced flatulence people laughed.  But really it, it was what was coming out of his mouth that was humiliating, claims, unfounded claims, endless such claims about the 2020 election. 

And then you find out his office was raided. His home was raided. He’s subpoenaed to cooperate with the January 6th committee.

It’s all not looking good. And, and what the future holds for Rudy Giuliani is a real question mark. And this is why many are now wondering, is it in the end Giuliani who will turn on Trump and potentially be Trump’s undoing reputationally.

I still don’t think Trump’s going to suffer any real consequences for all the things that happened under his watch, but at least, reputationally.

Rudy Giuliani had been speaking and has been speaking to the House Committee investigating the Trump riots. And there is a subpoena he received. His lawyer – remember MAGA really stands for making attorneys get attorneys – Rudy’s lawyer has been negotiating the scope of the subpoena and whether he may be able to comply with some of those requests. His appearance has for now been rescheduled. And we don’t yet have a new date, but this is a guy who almost certainly knows where the bodies are buried. 

And when you think back to Rudy Giuliani, as mayor of New York City in the aftermath of 9/11, and he was really admired by even many Democrats. 

At the time he had this reputation, and I remember the time, he had this reputation of being sort of a centrist, moderate Republican, who really cares about America and really cares about New York and is just what New York needed to recover from the devastation of 9/11. 

And he had a high approval rating, which is not easy as New York city mayor. New York city mayor is a position where someone almost certainly hates you. And usually it’s a whole bunch of people. And it was squandered with humiliation after humiliation. And the question now becomes is he going to prioritize self-preservation above all else? 

And if that were the case, we could expect him to reveal who knows what if and when he finally testifies, before the committee. The committee says they are not seeing these hesitations as something that will cause Rudy Giuliani to not cooperate in, in, in what they would consider a full way.

They believe that he ultimately is going to cooperate, but as you all know, sometimes people cooperate by showing up, and then they invoke their fifth amendment right against self-incrimination, sometimes dozens or sometimes even hundreds of times as some of Donald Trump’s family members recently did, Eric Trump, for example. 

So I don’t think it’s worth making any prediction about what Rudy knows and what he may say. 

My expectation is he will eventually show up. His lawyer will probably limit the scope of the inquiry to at least some degree in order to better protect Rudy Giuliani. 

And I think anybody really hoping for a bombshell is probably going to be disappointed. I want as much as anybody else for Rudy to show up and really spill the beans fully, but I don’t really expect that that is ultimately going to happen.

I think there’s one other side to this story as well. And that is the disloyalty of Donald Trump. And this is a story we’ve talked about before. People who were loyal to Trump up until, and even beyond the end. I mean, when Rudy was flying around the country with Jenna Ellis, holding these court hearings, where they would talk about supposed evidence of fraud that sometimes involved the van showing up without the right lunch for the election workers or whatever the case may be, that is above and beyond.

And ultimately you still see Trump abandon these people for the most part. Now with Rudy Giuliani, he doesn’t seem to have fully abandoned him. He, generally speaking, still says when asked, Rudy’s a good guy, and the big lie is real. We really did win the election, which they didn’t. And he hasn’t fully abandoned Rudy Giuliani yet. But you would think that maybe he’d be paying for Rudy’s legal fees, and as far as has been reported, he is not.

And what you have to remember about Trump is: he doesn’t really have friends in the way most normal people do. He has people that have a useful life, and this applies to Rudy Giuliani, this applies to Mitch McConnell. 

This applies to his own voters, right? For a while Trump’s voters were useful to him because he needed their vote. And then in the immediate aftermath of the November 2020 election, Trump’s voters were useful to him because he wanted their money supposedly for flipping results, but it was really to pay off Trump’s campaign debt. And now they’re not really, none of these people are really useful to Trump anymore.

And, some part of me thinks this even applies to Trump’s own family. I believe Trump would let his kids go to prison if it saved him from it. And from everything I’ve seen, that is exactly the picture that I get. 

So let me know your thoughts. Do you think Rudy will testify? Do you think he will ultimately give anything of material relevance, and where do you think this all ends up?

 

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