There was a time when Rudy Giuliani was known as America’s Mayor, and widely loved and respected, following the September 11, 2001, attacks.

He was even named TIME’s Person of the Year for 2001.

Now he’s hitched his wagon to President Donald Trump, appears unhinged on TV shows, spreads claims that America’s own intelligence agencies have warned him is Russian disinformation, and been duped by Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat character.

The Kazakh icon’s appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live earlier in the week was great PR for his upcoming movie, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, but that’s nothing compared to the news that began doing the rounds last night.

For more on the highly embarrassing footage first reported last night, we go to the Guardian:

In the film, released on Friday, the former New York mayor and current personal attorney to Donald Trump is seen reaching into his trousers and apparently touching his genitals while reclining on a bed in the presence of the actor playing Borat’s daughter, who is posing as a TV journalist.

Following an obsequious interview for a fake conservative news programme, the pair retreat at her suggestion for a drink to the bedroom of a hotel suite, which is rigged with concealed cameras.

After she removes his microphone, Giuliani, 76, can be seen lying back on the bed, fiddling with his untucked shirt and reaching into his trousers. They are then interrupted by Borat who runs in and says: “She’s 15. She’s too old for you.”

Images from the footage have also done the rounds. You can see one up top, and here’s another:

Back in July, Giuliani actually mentioned the incident to reporters, saying at first he had no idea what was going on when Baron Cohen burst into the room.

He added:

 “I thought about all the people he previously fooled and I felt good about myself because he didn’t get me.”

Yeah, about that.

Even before Giuliani’s hands are inside his pants, the interview with Maria Bakalova, a 24-year-old actress playing the role of a 15-year-old in the movie, was a trainwreck.

At one stage, Giuliani agrees to eat a bat with Bakalova (they don’t end up doing it), and he’s seen drinking, coughing, and flirting throughout.

To go a step further, Discourse’s Jack Crosbie has watched the clip, and has this to say:

…it’s far more graphic than any of the reviews make it sound…

What I saw starts at the end of an interview between Rudy and Borat’s “daughter” Tutar. Tutar is apologizing to Rudy for something, and then leans forward and touches his knee, suggestively. She then thanks him for the interview and invites him into the bedroom of the hotel suite they’re in for a drink.  He awkwardly helps her remove some of her microphones, and then immediately sits down on the bed, patting her, again, extremely awkwardly on the waist, while saying “you can give me your phone number, and your address.”

Tutar [Bakalova’s character] helps Giuliani remove a microphone from his shirt while he is sitting on the bed. He then lies down flat on his back and pushes both hands into the front of his pants, possibly re-tucking his shirt, but they stay there as he rummages around a bit, sighing.

At this point, Borat rushes into the room, wearing a wig and some kind of lingerie bustier over white boxer briefs and what appears to be a G-string.

I guess until we’ve seen the footage ourselves (the movie drops on Friday), we can’t know for sure, but it’s definitely not a good look for ‘ol Rudy.

He was quick to hit back on Twitter, mind you, releasing a four-part statement:

(1) The Borat video is a complete fabrication. I was tucking in my shirt after taking off the recording equipment.

At no time before, during, or after the interview was I ever inappropriate. If Sacha Baron Cohen implies otherwise he is a stone-cold liar.

— Rudy W. Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) October 21, 2020

He goes on to say that “This is an effort to blunt my relentless exposure of the criminality and depravity of Joe Biden and his entire family”, and “We are preparing much bigger dumps off of the hard drive from hell, of which Joe Biden will be unable to defend or hide from”.

A reminder that as Giuliani punts the Hunter Biden story, more than 50 former intelligence officials have signed a letter saying their national security experience had made them “deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role in this case”.

Then there’s also the fact that US intelligence agencies warned the White House last year that Giuliani was the target of an influence operation by Russian intelligence, as they raised concerns that Giuliani was being used to feed Russian misinformation to the president.

Finally, the fact that the Trump family and their orbit are the ones touting the story of a son benefitting illegally from his father’s political standing is what makes it miss the mark with so many Americans.

Election day is almost here, and it cannot come soon enough.

[sources:guardian&discourse]