For the past 48 hours, Rudy Giuliani has been trying to make hay of being “attacked” at a Shop-Rite in New York while campaigning for his son, Andrew Giuliani. However, despite Giuliani’s claims that he could’ve died if he was a “weaker 78-year-old,” the so-called assault looked like nothing more than a pat on the back to most observers. With Fox News not really covering the story, Giuliani took his harrowing tale to Newsmax where he expected a more sympathetic audience. Instead, even pro-Trump anchor Greg Kelly’s first reaction is the same as anyone with eyes.
“I’ve got to be honest, it doesn’t look that bad,” Kelly said during the bizarre interaction where it sounds like Giuliani is next to a lawnmower.
“I gotta be honest, it doesn’t look that bad” — a Newsmax host to Rudy Giuliani on video of his “assault” pic.twitter.com/FsJ3xZggVc
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 28, 2022
While Kelly’s initial reaction pretty much says it all, the Newsmax anchor gave Giuliani some wiggle room, and America’s Mayor immediately used it to claim that the anchor was looking at the wrong person. Via Insider:
As the video showed the man slapping his back, Giuliani claimed that Kelly was looking at another person in the video.
“That was the woman who was rubbing my back, not the guy who hit me,” said Giuliani.
Kelly didn’t challenge this, saying: “That makes sense. Well look, I’m sorry you were roughed up but the campaign trail is crazy.”
It also doesn’t help Giuliani’s case that a judge has already downgraded the charges from felony assault to a misdemeanor because, again, the video clearly shows a pat on the back. MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes went full Zapruder on the footage, playing it slow motion, and it is nowhere near the potentially deadly assault that Giuliani has been touting since Sunday.
(Via Aaron Rupar on Twitter)