One New Year's resolution that journalists need to start adopting right this minute: Stop saying Rudy Giuliani has changed. The latest iteration of this annoying truism comes to us courtesy of David French of the New York Times, who argues "Rudy Giuliani isn’t truly Rudy Giuliani any longer," but has experienced a "long descent from a post-9/11 American hero to a mocked, derided and embattled criminal defendant ." French is a never-Trump Republican, but even liberals who should know better have embraced this "fall from grace" narrative. John Oliver on "Last Week Tonight" exclaimed Sunday that the modern iteration of Giuliani is "desperately trying to coast off of the guy that Giuliani was 20 years ago."
There's been some pushback against this line, most notably from Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times. Back in August, Bouie reminded readers that, decades before Giuliani was sued for defaming two Georgia election workers as part of a larger attempt to steal the 2020 election, he was a "scowling demagogue who stoked the flames of chauvinism and racial hatred." The story that Bouie tells, of Giuliani participating in a racist police riot in 1989, is revolting. But wildly, it's also just the tip of the iceberg that is Giuliani's long and ugly history of being the absolute worst.
