---

 [ IMPORTANT READS ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=9)

#  My Cousin Rudy Is Melting - but He Can Still Smell Election Crimes … or, So He Says

**GUEST COMMENTARY**-*Ooof.* The bonkers clown show keeps spiraling further out there.

Written by Abby Zimet.

 ![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/stories/Nov-2020/095j.png)

November 23 2020

<a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a><a class="a2a_button_print"></a>[](https://www.addtoany.com/share)

 [Comments](#disqus_thread)

**GUEST COMMENTARY**-*Ooof.* The bonkers clown show keeps spiraling further out there.

On a day when Georgia finished a hand recount showing Biden still wins the state, and a Trump-appointed judge denied a motion to invalidate that result in a case that had "no basis either in fact or law"-- marking Trump's 32nd legal defeat -- and news dropped of Trump summoning Michigan GOP lawmakers to the White House to see if they can help overturn that state's result, Rudy Giuliani upped the day's crazy quotient with another train wreck of a news conference that might beat the [Four Seasons](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/08/the-other-four-seasons-trump-team-holds-press-conference-at-suburban-garden-centre) fiasco, laying out a string of fact-and-evidence-free claims that Joe Biden, in "a common scheme," rigged the election through "mass cheating" in an ingeniously coordinated conspiracy with city officials nationwide. Spinning out chimerical fantasies already tossed out in multiple court losses, Giuliani stood by a map proclaiming "Multiple Pathways To Victory" to charge officials in Atlanta, Detroit, Madison, Milwaukee, Philadelphia et al with conspiring in Biden's massive win, and called for it to be overturned.

As he spoke and, in Charlie Pierce's [words, ](https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a34731279/rudy-giuliani-press-conference-insane/)"the gods of absurdity overachieved"-- "Madness always attends a time of plague" -- hair dye streamed down both sides of Giuliani's sweaty face. Always a trooper for Trump, he persevered, albeit with frequent swipes of a clammy handkerchief; he also took periodic detours to issue some anti-Semitic dog-whistles about George Soros being behind the villainy.

Seeking to explain away the court losses -- “Unfortunately they have some friendly judges that will issue ridiculously irrational opinions" – Giuliani nudged the crazy dial up to 11, launching into a dreadful re-enactment of a scene from 1992's My Cousin Vinny, "one of my favorite law movies," in which Joe Pesci plays a hapless lawyer who's never won a case: "And then he says to her, 'How many fingers do I got up?' And she says three. . ." George Conway on the spectacle: "If my life were on the line and I had to choose between being represented by Vinny Gambini or Rudy Giuliani, I'd choose Vinny hands down." Conway also marveled, "The degree of dishonesty, derangement and depravity displayed by (Trump's) legal team exceeds the imaginable." Added a helpful commenter, "And hair dye."

![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/stories/Nov-2020/095k.png)Improbably, the rest of Trump's "legal team" seemed to have landed from a planet even further distant from Mother Earth. A distraught Sidney Powell, (photo left, on the left) sounding perpetually on the verge of tears, [claimed ](https://twitter.com/GOP/status/1329490975266398210)the election was tainted by a “massive influence of communist money" from Cuba, China and Venezuela, thus charging Hugo Chavez rigged it all for Biden despite having died seven years earlier.

Other alleged co-conspirators included voting-machine companies, Antifa, Black Lives Matter, "people around the world, in the middle of the night, that's when the dominion operators went in and injected votes. . .globalists, dictators, corporations -- everyone's against us except President Trump and we the people." "This is stunning, heartbreaking, infuriating, and the most unpatriotic acts I can even imagine for people in this country to have participated in," she exclaimed. "We want the American public to know we will not be intimidated. American patriots are fed up with the corruption. . .We are going to take this country back. . .We are going to clean this mess up now. President Trump won by a landslide, (and) we are going to reclaim the United States of America for the people who vote for freedom."

There was also Jenna Ellis, (photo above, right) a smirking, Barbie-like "lawyer" from Liberty University, who railed against the "absolutely shocking" fake news and insisted "this is an elite strike force" so they better listen up "because the American people deserve to know what we have uncovered to make sure our Constitution is protected -- we are a nation of rules, not a nation of rulers." (Say what?)

When reporters asked to see evidence: "Your question is fundamentally flawed -- you obviously don't understand the legal process." *Twitter:* "Your question is fundamentally flawed because Rudy is melting, we live in a different dimension, and we don't know how to answer it." Also *Twitter*: "Translation: there is no evidence, and they should all be disbarred. . .Seems like a longwinded way to say we don't think black people's votes should count. . .I've changed my mind about you defending me in my parking ticket case. . . Where can we hire this, checks notes, elite strike force?"

Rudy, face streaming, finished up, explaining they don't want to reveal their evidence or expose their witnesses to "the tender mercies of a vicious press." "I don't know what you need to wake you up, to do your job and inform the American people!" he [shouted."](https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1329490681233092608?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1329490681233092608%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedailybeast.com%2Frudy-giulianis-hair-dye-streaks-down-face-after-my-cousin-vinny-performance) This is real! It’s not made up! There’s nobody here who engages in fantasies!” "I've tried a hundred cases -- I know crimes, I can smell them," he said, as lucid as ever. "We're headed to a very bad place, and it's not inappropriate that a Venezuelan company counted our votes" -- or that the tawdry, bungling, felonious circus ends like this.

*(Abby Zimet writes for* [CommonDreams.org](https://www.commondreams.org/further/2020/11/19/my-cousin-rudy-melting-he-can-still-smell-election-crimes-deranged-help-his-elite) *. . . where this piece was first posted.) Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty. Front photo by Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call. Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.*

[![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/ME%20DENTAL%20SPA/me%20dental%202026%20final.jpg)](http://medentalspa.com/)

 ![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/banners/signup-for-cw.png)

## Get The News In Your Email Inbox Mondays &amp; Thursdays

 Message

 [ ![LA DWP #2 (Pay Your Bill Help)](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/LADWP/dwp%20level%20pay%205-7-25.jpg) ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/component/banners/click/82 "LA DWP #2 (Pay Your Bill Help)")

 [ ![Home - HHR Rent is too High - SB-2](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/HHR/AHF-rent-too-high.jpg) ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/component/banners/click/104 "Home - HHR Rent is too High - SB-2")

 ---

##  Featured CityWatch Stories

 [ ![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/media/yootheme/cache/34/065h-34e1b43b.jpg) ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33212:reminder-to-the-red-states-turnabout-is-fair-play&catid=395)

### [Reminder to the Red States, Turnabout is Fair Play](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33212:reminder-to-the-red-states-turnabout-is-fair-play&catid=395)

GELFAND’S WORLD - Indiana has been pounded by rains that resulted in widespread flooding. While the rain was still comi…

 [ ![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/media/yootheme/cache/0f/061a-0f1ada2f.jpg) ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33148:brace-yourself-for-a-worse-housing-crisis&catid=398)

### [Brace Yourself For A Worse Housing Crisis](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33148:brace-yourself-for-a-worse-housing-crisis&catid=398)

PLANNING WATCH - The California State Legislature will soon vote on the following draft legislation. Please carefully…

 [ ![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/media/yootheme/cache/d0/065o-d02f23ac.jpg) ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33213:californias-empty-classrooms-are-a-warning-sacramento-cant-ignore&catid=378)

### [California’s Empty Classrooms Are a Warning Sacramento Can’t Ignore](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33213:californias-empty-classrooms-are-a-warning-sacramento-cant-ignore&catid=378)

A STUDENT'S VIEW - California is spending more on public education, yet classrooms are emptying, campuses are closing…

 [ ![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/media/yootheme/cache/75/064a-75d5dbb3.jpg) ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33199:your-boss-owns-your-workday-not-your-brain&catid=425)

### [Your Boss Owns Your Workday—Not Your Brain](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33199:your-boss-owns-your-workday-not-your-brain&catid=425)

THE NEURAL WORKPLACE - California must protect workers before workplace surveillance crosses the final frontier: the hu…

 [ ![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/media/yootheme/cache/fe/064i-febc3c1a.jpg) ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33203:all-talk-no-action-nithya-ramans-reckoning&catid=401)

### [All Talk, No Action: Nithya Raman’s Reckoning](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33203:all-talk-no-action-nithya-ramans-reckoning&catid=401)

THE BOTTOM LINE - Nithya Raman lost the homelessness gavel, and the most damaging verdict didn’t come from Republicans…

---

##  [ IMPORTANT READS ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=9)

 [ ![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/stories/Aug-2026/065i.jpg) ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33221:netanyahu-needed-an-enemy-mamdani-volunteered&catid=9)### [Netanyahu Needed an Enemy - Mamdani Volunteered](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33221:netanyahu-needed-an-enemy-mamdani-volunteered&catid=9)

 [ ![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/stories/Aug-2026/064m3.jpeg) ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33192:should-unsafe-property-conditions-lead-to-injury-claims&catid=9)### [Should Unsafe Property Conditions Lead to Injury Claims?](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33192:should-unsafe-property-conditions-lead-to-injury-claims&catid=9)

 [ ![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/stories/Aug-2026/061q.jpg) ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33155:how-electrical-hazards-put-workers-at-risk&catid=9)### [How Electrical Hazards Put Workers at Risk](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33155:how-electrical-hazards-put-workers-at-risk&catid=9)

 [ ![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/stories/July-2026/058i.jpg) ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33091:metro-doesnt-have-a-transit-problem-it-has-a-leadership-problem&catid=9)### [Metro Doesn't Have a Transit Problem—It Has a Leadership Problem](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33091:metro-doesnt-have-a-transit-problem-it-has-a-leadership-problem&catid=9)

 [ ![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/stories/July-2026/060o.jpg) ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33139:wrongful-death-claims-after-a-serious-accident-and-what-families-need-to-know&catid=9)### [Wrongful Death Claims After a Serious Accident and What Families Need to Know](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33139:wrongful-death-claims-after-a-serious-accident-and-what-families-need-to-know&catid=9)
<div data-id="1" 
	class="eb-inst eb-hide eb-emailform eb-1 eboxContentLocker"
	data-options='{"trigger":"onPageLoad","trigger_selector":"","delay":3000,"early_trigger":true,"scroll_depth":"percentage","scroll_depth_value":80,"firing_frequency":1,"reverse_scroll_close":true,"threshold":0,"close_out_viewport":false,"exit_timer":1000,"idle_time":10000,"close_on_esc":false,"animation_open":"slideInDown","animation_close":"fadeOutDown","animation_duration":400,"disable_page_scroll":true,"test_mode":false,"debug":false,"ga_tracking":true,"ga_tracking_id":"G-P16BQ7X1SW","ga_tracking_event_category":"EngageBox","ga_tracking_event_label":"Box #1 - Global Email Signup Form","auto_focus":false}'
	data-type='popup'
	>

	<button type="button" data-ebox-cmd="close" class="eb-close placement-outside" aria-label="Close">
	<img alt="close popup button" />
	<span aria-hidden="true">&times;</span>
</button>
	<div class="eb-dialog eb-formVer" role="dialog" aria-modal="true" id="dialog1" aria-label="dialog1">
		
		<button type="button" data-ebox-cmd="close" class="eb-close placement-inside" aria-label="Close">
	<img alt="close popup button" />
	<span aria-hidden="true">&times;</span>
</button>	
		<div class="eb-container">
						<div class="eb-content">
				
<form action="https://citywatchla.us2.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=34d69f33624fd058ee9b56516&amp;id=4bfa422f51&amp;f_id=00d6c2e1f0" class="eb" method="post" id="mcform-1" name="mcform-1" target="_blank">
			<div class="eb-form-header"><p><img src="/images/2023/06/be-a-city-watcher.png" alt="be a city watcher" width="350" height="97" loading="lazy" data-path="local-images:/2023/06/be-a-city-watcher.png"></p>
<p>Sign up to receive our special e-news blasts on Monday and Thursday evenings!</p></div>
	
					<div class="eb-field-row">

			
			
			
			<input class="eb-input" type="email" name="EMAIL"  placeholder="Email address"  id="EMAIL" value="" required>

			
		</div>
										
	<div class="eb-footer">
    	<button class="eb-btn" type="submit" name="subscribe" style="background-color:rgba(93, 183, 93, 1);color:rgba(255, 255, 255, 1)">
    		Sign up    	</button>
    </div>
</form>			</div>
		</div>
	</div>	
</div>
<div data-id="3" 
	class="eb-inst eb-hide eb-yesno eb-3 "
	data-options='{"trigger":"onScrollDepth","trigger_selector":"","delay":0,"early_trigger":false,"scroll_depth":"percentage","scroll_depth_value":80,"firing_frequency":2,"reverse_scroll_close":false,"threshold":0,"close_out_viewport":false,"exit_timer":1000,"idle_time":1000,"close_on_esc":false,"animation_open":"fadeInUp","animation_close":"fadeOut","animation_duration":300,"disable_page_scroll":false,"test_mode":false,"debug":false,"ga_tracking":true,"ga_tracking_id":"G-P16BQ7X1SW","ga_tracking_event_category":"EngageBox","ga_tracking_event_label":"Box #3 - Yes \/ No Donation Popup Box","auto_focus":false}'
	data-type='popup'
	>

	<button type="button" data-ebox-cmd="close" class="eb-close placement-outside" aria-label="Close">
	<img alt="close popup button" />
	<span aria-hidden="true">&times;</span>
</button>
	<div class="eb-dialog " role="dialog" aria-modal="true" id="dialog3" aria-label="dialog3">
		
		<button type="button" data-ebox-cmd="close" class="eb-close placement-inside" aria-label="Close">
	<img alt="close popup button" />
	<span aria-hidden="true">&times;</span>
</button>	
		<div class="eb-container">
						<div class="eb-content">
				
<div class="ebox-yes-no">
	<div class="ebox-yn-text">
		
		
		<div class="ebox-yn-headline" style="font-size:22px;color:#888888">
			<p>If you only give once a month, would you consider giving to CityWatch?</p>
<p>Your support fuels our mission to promote and facilitate civic engagement and neighborhood empowerment, and to hold area government and its politicians accountable.</p>
<p>Would you like to help? Even if you can only give $5, it will make a difference.</p>		</div>
			</div>
	
	<div class="ebox-ys-buttons" style="font-size: 16px;">
		
<a
					data-ebox-prevent="0"
		data-ebox-cmd="close"
				target="_self"
		href="https://www.citywatchla.com/donate"
		rel="noopener"
	
	
	
	
	class="ebox-ys-btn"
	style="background-color:#2ec664;color:#ffffff;min-width:100px">
	Yes
	</a>
<a
	
	
			data-ebox-cmd="close"
		href="#"
	
	
	class="ebox-ys-btn"
	style="background-color:#ef2345;color:#ffffff;min-width:100px">
	Not Right Now
	</a>	</div>

	</div>			</div>
		</div>
	</div>	
</div>
