As another example of how creepy Donald Trump is the anti-Midas, turning everything and everyone he touches to rubbish, Rudy Giuliani’s daughter Caroline Rose Giuliani has written an essay endorsing Kamala Harris for president but also expressing anger at creepy Trump for what happened to her father who, as a result of climbing aboard the MAGA wagon, went from once being being a respected prosecutor and mayor of New York to being disbarred from New York and Washington DC for spreading election lies.
She explains why she split from father and how painful it was.
As Rudy Giuliani’s daughter, I’m unfortunately well-suited to remind Americans of just how calamitous being associated with Trump can be, even for those who are convinced he’s on their side. Watching my dad’s life crumble since he joined forces with Trump has been extraordinarily painful, both on a personal level and because his demise feels linked to a dark force that threatens to once again consume America. Not to disregard individual accountability in the slightest, but it would be naive for us to ignore the fact that many of those closest to Trump have descended into catastrophic downward spirals. If we let Trump back into the driver’s seat this fall, our country will be no exception.
…I’ll never forget the night my dad told me he was considering becoming Trump’s lawyer. I was with him at the Grand Havana Room, a cigar bar at the top of 666 Fifth Avenue, an address too fitting given the unholy alliance my father was about to enter into.
Surrounded by thick smoke and powerful men, I ugly-cried for a few minutes, then spent the next three hours making my vehement case to my father that he not go down this morally perilous path.
It was extremely rare for my dad to tell me he was going to do anything before actually doing it, so this moment of connection with him also felt like a cosmic opportunity to do my part to limit the spread of Trump’s sinister shadow. I held nothing back. I voiced all of my concerns about Trump’s open racism, rampant misogyny, and total lack of empathy. I even told my dad that I already felt ashamed of my last name whenever I saw headlines connecting him with Trump, and that this escalation would only deepen that feeling. For the rest of that night, I held onto hope that a daughter’s emotional entreaty might actually sway a father.
That fantasy was dispelled the next morning when a news story popped onto my feed: Rudy Giuliani was going to work for Donald Trump. The pit I felt in my stomach then was a warning, but I had no idea how much destruction my father would come to face due to his one-sided fealty to a con-man.
…Take it from me, Trump destroys everything he touches. I saw it happen to my family. Don’t let it happen to yours, or to our country. Kamala Harris will guide us into a brighter future, but only if we unite behind her. On November 5th, I’ll be voting for that future. For justice, stability, and democracy. And I sincerely hope you’ll cast your ballot for Kamala Harris, too.
As a father, I know that it does not take much for your children to feel embarrassed by something you say or do publicly. That goes with the territory. In my case it is mostly trivial and ephemeral, like my poor taste in clothes or when I show my deep ignorance of pop culture, or make groaner dad jokes, or say something that reveals my cluelessness of something that they think everyone knows. But that is amused-embarrassment, something to share a laugh about, and not shamed-embarrassment that leads to weeping and gnashing of teeth. I cannot imagine how anyone could ignore three hours of heartfelt crying from their child trying to dissuade them from some course of action that the child thinks will be disastrous.
In Caroline Rose Giuliani’s case, it must be really heartbreaking to see her own father going from being a respected politician to a bumbling clown, publicly subjecting himself to ridicule over and over again in his attempts to please creepy Trump.
The sentiment I get on reading that extract is pity rather than shame.
“Watching my dad’s life crumble since he joined forces with Trump has been extraordinarily painful, both on a personal level and because his demise feels linked to a dark force that threatens to once again consume America.”
That’s almost an exoneration; it wasn’t Rudy’s fault, it was Trump as a Svengali to those who get sucked into his orbit.
Poor dad! Undone by the evil forces surrounding Trump.
@John Morales #1: I wonder if that kind of is true, though. Like if there’s some subtle quality that attracts gullible idiots to him that is largely invisible to people who aren’t gullible idiots. Or at least, they’re far too easily convinced by him once they fall within his orbit. Hell, it might even be something like he’s particularly attractive to gullible idiots who easily recognize their own yet aren’t self-aware enough to recognize it in themselves, and it’s like “What a dumb failure, I can do better then them” when all those other people screw up. …But the orange one does not allow competence within his sphere for long, because it makes him look weak and inept, so either way, no you can’t.
As I was noting on Pharyngula’s post on the subject, a number of people who have known Giuliani from his early days say he was always a grandstander and out for public attention and ambition. He just got a good reputation during his time as Mayor of New York after 9/11 because he could get all that public adulation he craved just by standing there and being ‘presidential’. Once that faded and he ran into the limits of political progress he could make on his own, he was a prime target for someone he figured could get him higher.
So Trump definitely led Giuliani off the edge of the cliff, but Giuliani was actively looking for a way to climb higher anyway.