John Oliver looks at what on Earth happened to Rudy Giuliani, discovers 'he's always been like this'
John Oliver often takes deep dives into relatively esoteric subjects, but on Sunday he returned to "Stupid Watergate," his nickname for the serious but ludicrous scandals surrounding President Trump. "This week, Stupid Watergate had another plot twist, thanks to Rudy Giuliani," he said on Last Week Tonight. In his interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity, Giuliani potentially "exposed Trump to multiple new legal and political problems," as well as making a memorably "creepy comment," Oliver said. "Setting aside the sleaziness of calling Ivanka 'a fine woman,' let's not forget that he also just called a living human being disposable — which is pretty harsh, but also, eh, it is Jared."
"Giuliani's interview was so ill-advised and chaotic it left many people on TV [wondering] what exactly had become of him," the post-9/11 "America's mayor" who earned 2001's Time "Man of the Year" honors, Oliver said. "And if any part of you is also wondering what on Earth happened to Rudy Giuliani, tonight we're going to try to answer that for you, because the short answer is: Nothing, he's always been this way. ... To truly understand Giuliani, you have to go back before 9/11," and Oliver did, all the way to the 1980s.
"When you look at all of this in total, you realize that Giuliani's role as Trump's lawyer isn't an aberration — everything in his life has led to this point," Oliver said. "And while he may be providing terrible legal representation for Trump, he's actually the most honest representation of him in general. Because think about it: They're basically two versions of the same person." So "what happened to Giuliani is really not the right question — he's always been like this," he added. "What's going to happen to him is more to the point," and "he is so fatally flawed as a human being that he's probably going to end up president." The clip is NSFW in several places. Peter Weber
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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
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