[imagesource: Drew Angerer / Getty Images]

He came (or at least tried to), he sweated (including hair dye, as you can see in the image above), and he most certainly did not conquer, with some truly humiliating press conferences and court showdowns that ended in ridicule and defeat.

Rudy Giuliani’s 2020 in a nutshell, really.

The man once dubbed ‘America’s Mayor’ in the wake of 9/11 has completely lost the plot in recent years, culminating in him featuring on Forbes’ list of the biggest career crashes of 2020.

2021 hasn’t gone much better, and Giuliani’s speech at a 9/11 commemoration dinner on Saturday was a total trainwreck.

During the speech, where he appeared to be extremely intoxicated, Giuliani imitated the Queen, called a top US general an “idiot” and “asshole,” and went to great lengths to distance himself from Prince Andrew.

Here’s the part of his speech where he goes after General Mark Milley, although he calls him ‘Miley’:

Interesting tone to take at a dinner honouring those who died on 9/11.

I would also avoid impersonating the Queen and talking about Prince Andrew, but not dear Rudy:

Rudy Giuliani killed it at the Comedy Central Roast of *reads notecard* … 9/11? pic.twitter.com/fRL9TzhmwY

— Stephen Douglas (@Stephen_Douglas) September 12, 2021

Extreme ‘drunk uncle grabbing the microphone at a wedding’ energy.

Other people in attendance included Victoria Toensing and Joe diGenova, lawyers who Giuliani hired to help with the attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, and Steve Bannon.

Over on Twitter, Rudy also showed an amazing lack of self-awareness, decrying those who politicise 9/11 before retweeting somebody doing just that:

Ultimately, he’s performing for an audience of one, and lapping up the approval:

pic.twitter.com/qlKiG3VRuO

— Colin Campbell (@colincampbell) September 11, 2021

What a way to tarnish your legacy.

By the way, if you want to better understand how the events of 9/11 led to a 20-year ‘war on terror’ that has been a catastrophic failure from the start, watch this Netflix docuseries:

To understand the plight of Afghanistan’s women, and what happens now that American troops have exited and the Taliban has taken over, you might also want to take 20 minutes to read this superb New Yorker article by Anand Gopal.

[source:uproxx]