10-04-2016, 11:07 AM
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/03/us/politics/rudy-giuliani-presidential-race.html?em_pos=small&emc=edit_ur_20161003&nl=nytoday&nlid=21696&ref=headline&_r=0
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Quote:[url=http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/g/rudolph_w_giuliani/index.html?inline=nyt-per]Rudolph W. Giuliani, a former New York mayor and an ally of Donald J. Trump’s, suggested on Sunday that “everybody” commits infidelity, setting off a backlash on Twitter.
The remark came during an exchange on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” after Chuck Todd, the show’s host, asked Mr. Giuliani whether he was “the right person” to bring up former President Bill Clinton’s infidelities in this heated campaign.
“You have your own infidelities, sir,” Mr. Todd said.
“Everybody does,” Mr. Giuliani responded. “You know, I’m a Roman Catholic and I confess those things to my priest.”
The reaction from Twitter users was swift and unforgiving.
“No Rudy — not everyone does,” wrote Diana Hess, a self-described Hillary Clinton supporter.
“Um, I’ve been married for almost 20 years. No infidelities,” wrote John Bielski, whose Twitter account describes him as a labor lawyer in Philadelphia. Mr. Bielski, whose Twitter profile says he loves his wife and daughters more than his favorite sports teams, went on to ask,
“Am I doing marriage wrong?”
Mr. Trump hinted last week after the first presidential debate — in which Mrs. Clinton criticized him for shaming a Miss Universe winner 20 years ago for gaining weight — that he would open a line of attack on Mr. Clinton’s infidelities.
Mr. Giuliani, one of Mr. Trump’s top surrogates, has repeatedly attackedMrs. Clinton for her defense of her husband during the Monica Lewinsky scandal in the 1990s and her attempts to discredit women who accused her husband of sexual assault.
“After being married to Bill Clinton for 20 years, if you didn’t know the moment Monica Lewinsky said Bill Clinton violated her,” Mr. Giuliani told Elite Daily after the debate, “then you’re too stupid to be president.”
Mr. Trump has also raised the issue of Mrs. Clinton’s marriage in recent days. At a rally on Saturday in Manheim, Pa., he asserted that Mrs. Clinton has no loyalties to anyone but her donors.
“I don’t even think she’s loyal to Bill, if you want to know the truth,” he told the audience. “And really, folks, really, why should she be, right?”
But on Sunday, the line of attack showed signs of backfiring.
“Just bizarre,” Glenn Greenwald, a journalist, lawyer and founder of The Intercept, a news media site he began in 2013, wrote on Twitter.
“Trump & Giuliani have 6 wives between them & are sermonizing about marriage to the Clintons, who have been married 41 years.”
Others highlighted the illogic of Mr. Giuliani’s assertion that “everybody” cheats. If everybody cheats, then why attack Mr. Clinton for it?
Mr. Giuliani’s remarks on “Meet the Press” aired at 10:30 a.m. Eastern time.
By 11:30 a.m., a clip of the exchange had been shared more than 600 times.
Many Twitter users wrote that the Republican Party has drifted from its conservative social values.
Jeet Heer, a senior editor at The New Republic, wrote: “GOP 2004: Gay marriage will destroy the sanctity of wedding vows! GOP 2016: Adultery for all!”
In an interview after the show, Mr. Giuliani said he was speaking not just of marital infidelity, but about “all forms of infidelity, which there are many.”
“By infidelities, I don’t just mean marital. People lie. People cheat. People misrepresent. People commit sins,” he said. “The point that I was trying to make was, as far as I can tell, among human beings, there are very few that don’t have some.”
When asked why, if all people commit sins, he felt that raising the issue of Mr. Clinton’s infidelity is fair game, he said: “I’m not attacking the Clintons. I’m attacking Hillary.”
He made clear that the decision to resurrect the issue of Mr. Clinton’s affairs — and Mrs. Clinton’s attacks on the credibility of women who made claims of sexual impropriety — is linked to her raising Mr. Trump’s treatment of a former Miss Universe, Alicia Machado, in the final moments of the debate.
“If she would like to stop attacking on things that happened 20 years ago, he’ll stop attacking things that happened 20 years ago,” Mr. Giuliani said.
He added, “I don’t know if it is a winning or losing strategy, but if you get attacked, you have to defend yourself.”
Yet the idea of excusing Mr. Clinton’s infidelity, while attacking Mrs. Clinton’s response it, struck some women as hypocritical.
“I’m no Hillary fan, believe me,” said Paula Cullen of Spokane, Wash., who describes herself on her Twitter account as a “former feminist.” “But to dismiss the original immoral behavior as, ‘Well, everybody does it,’ but make an issue of her reaction is a sign that we’ve lost our moral compass.”
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Your anger and ego will always reveal your true self.
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