The sequel to 2006’s Borat doesn’t hit Amazon Prime until Friday, but one of its most shocking scenes became headline news on Wednesday. That’s when reviews came out, most of them singling out one scene in particular: where Rudy Giuliani, currently the personal attorney to the sitting president of the United States, gets into a questionable roundelay with our hero’s underage daughter in a hotel room. It wasn’t the news the frequently embattled former NYC mayor needs less than two weeks shy of his boss’ election, and he didn’t exactly make it better when he issued his formal response.
On Wednesday night Giuliani went on WABC radio to attempt to put out the fire, and only succeeded in fanning the flames. He started by playing the victim, complaining that the press “attacks me over everything possible.” And then Sacha Baron Cohen — or “Borat,” as he called him — came in. “Now the idiot Borat is going after me with a totally sensationalized, false account of a ridiculous movie I guess that he has done.”
Before he tried to explain the, shall we say, highly questionable act that happens in the film, Giuliani tried to connect it to…Joe Biden. “Now let me tell you why I know this is a hit job that happens because…it is not an accident that it happens when I turn in all this evidence on their prince and darling Joe Biden who is one of the biggest crooks of the last 30 years,” Giuliani said.
He then claimed what happened in the hotel room, with actress Maria Bakalova, could have “added, doctored, manipulated,” saying that he “remained clothed the entire time,” only partially disrobing when he went to take off his microphone equipment. (He also claimed he and Bakalova “prayed together.”) It was then that Baron Cohen, as Borat, ran in, with cape, prompting Giuliani to have his people call the police. Baron Cohen then fled the scene.
“This is a hit job,” Giuliani claimed. In the film, Baron Cohen-as-Borat not only interrupts them with Rudy’s pants down, but also yells, “She’s 15! She’s too old for you!” It must be noted that there’s no indication that GIuliani knew that the character is 15 years old.
You can listen to Giuliani’s full statement below. Meanwhile, you can watch Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan when it drops on Amazon Prime on Friday, October 23.