Giuliani attacks Black Lives Matter at RNC, says Biden threatens mayhem in streets

Rudolph W. Giuliani attacked the Black Lives Matter movement at the Republican National Convention on Thursday, casting President Trump’s reelection as vital to protecting Americans from rioting — and from progressive Democrats who undercut the police.

At a time when the COVID-19 pandemic and the fight for racial justice have transformed life in America, Giuliani framed the Nov. 3 election as a choice between law and order under Trump or mayhem in the streets under his Democratic rival, Joe Biden.

Giuliani, now Trump’s personal attorney, cited bursts of rioting and vandalism that have occurred amid the peaceful protests in hundreds of American cities during the three months since George Floyd, a Black man, died in the custody of Minneapolis police.

“It is clear that a vote for Biden and the Democrats creates the risk that you will bring this lawlessness to your city, to your town, to your suburb,” the former New York mayor said.

Giuliani made no effort to reconcile his dire prediction of lawlessness under Biden with his depiction of lawlessness now occurring under Trump, apart from saying the cities where it is happening are led by Democrats.

Giuliani suggested Biden, a former U.S. senator, was embarrassed that he had written a 1994 crime bill that progressives view as racially biased and overly punitive, but at the same time was beholden to “pro-criminal” Democrats like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco.

“Biden has changed his principles so often, he no longer has any principles,” Giuliani said. “He disavowed his authorship of the 1994 crime bill. He’s a Trojan horse with Bernie, AOC, Pelosi, Black Lives Matter and his party’s entire left wing just waiting to execute their pro-criminal, anti-police policies.”

Giuliani, whose racially incendiary posture as mayor foreshadowed Trump’s as president, said the killing of Floyd was “unforgivable.” He accused Democrats of ignoring a chance to join Trump in taking action against police brutality because they knew it would make the president look like an effective leader.

“They could have none of that,” Giuliani shouted. “So Black Lives Matter and Antifa sprang into action, and in a flash they hijacked the protests into vicious, brutal riots,” he said, alluding to the loose-knit anti-fascist movement.

Giuliani said Democrats let protests turn into riots. “Businesses were burned and crushed, people beaten, shot and killed, police officers routinely assaulted, badly beaten and occasionally murdered, and the police handcuffed by progressive Democrat mayors from doing anything but observe the crimes and absorb the blows,” he said.

The progressive approach to crime, he said, is “to release prisoners as many and as soon as possible, and to go to war with the police,” ignoring Trump’s frequent touting of his easing of federal sentencing laws.

Giuliani has emerged as one of Trump’s most trusted and controversial advisors during his tumultuous presidency. Last week he attended the White House funeral of the president’s younger brother, Robert Trump.

Giuliani and former associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman played roles in the Ukraine scandal that led to Trump’s impeachment. They were involved in efforts to oust Marie Yovanovitch as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, in what opponents said was a plot to get the Ukrainian government to produce dirt on business activities of Biden’s son Hunter when his father was vice president.

Prosecutors at the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan have been investigating the activities of Giuliani, Parnas and Fruman. They have charged Parnas and Fruman with campaign finance crimes, but Giuliani has not been accused of wrongdoing.

Trump has come to Giuliani’s defense, saying the “deep state” was pursuing him in a “witch hunt.”

“He may seem a little rough around the edges,” Trump said, “but he is also a great guy and wonderful lawyer.”