‘The Daily Show’s ‘Leaked’ Footage Of Rudy Giuliani’s ‘Masked Singer’ Performance Probably Isn’t Far From The Real Thing

March 11, 2020, is generally considered the beginning of the pandemic, at least in the United States. That was the day that Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson revealed they tested positive for COVID-19; the NBA season shut down; and then-president Donald Trump halted travel from Europe to America. But those weren’t the worst thing to happen on March 11, 2020. No, the worst thing to happen was “Bear Is Revealed As Sarah Palin.”

Where were when you saw Sarah Palin rap “Baby Got Back” while dressed as a bear on The Masked Singer? Probably at home, because, again, pandemic. The Fox singing competition series didn’t face much backlash for inviting the “speak American” politician onto the show (we were all preoccupied that night), but it is now after Deadline reported that Rudy Giuliani was “unmasked as an exiting costumed contestant” during a taping last week, prompting judges Ken Jeong and Robin Thicke to leave the stage in protest.

While Jeong and Thicke exited (they eventually returned), fellow judges Jenny McCarthy and Nicole Scherzinger remained onstage. They bantered with Giuliani, a controversial figure for pressing what is widely derided as a baseless claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from his client Donald Trump.

Deadline declined to reveal what costume Giuliani wore (imagine how much sweat must be in that thing, let alone the cigar smell), but The Daily Show has a solid prediction for how the performance went. “TRIAL BY COMBAT.” You can watch it below.