The campaign committee supporting Garry McCarthy’s possible run for mayor has reported receiving a $5,600 contribution from Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and one-time Republican presidential candidate. The contribution is the maximum allowed under Illinois election law.
Giuliani has controversially emerged as Donald Trump’s most prominent defender and apologist, leading the Des Moines Register to label him “Trump’s chief toady and bootlicker.”
Elected officials and candidates are falling all over themselves to attack Trump’s policies, with Rahm Emanuel leading the pack. Taking Giuliani’s money will be seen as tacit approval of Giuliani’s many bizarre public comments, playing right into Emanuel’s hands and opening McCarthy up to easy attacks. Giuliani’s more outrageous statements include:
- Attacking Hillary Clinton for not visiting Ground Zero after 9/11, despite pictures showing then-Senator Clinton there, together with Giuliani, the day after the attack.
- Claiming to be the architect of Trump’s Muslim immigration ban. His public statements admitting that it was based in religious bias became part of the court case to overturn it.
- Claiming to have insider information from within the FBI regarding a coverup of Hillary Clinton’s emails.
- Stating that radical islamic terror attacks in the U.S. didn’t start to happen until Barack Obama was elected president, which of course was 7 years after the 9/11 attack occurred.
- Repeating Trump’s statement that Obama founded ISIS.
- Saying that black children have a 99% chance of killing each other.
- Defending Trump against accusations of sexual harassment.
Not exactly the guy you want at your side while you’re running for mayor of Chicago.
McCarthy was a Deputy Commissioner of the New York City Police Department under Giuliani, and he notably set up and ran the emergency command center on 9/11, working side-by-side with Mayor Giuliani and his staff.
As of December 31, 2017, McCarthy’s campaign fund had $1,572 on hand, and has reported receiving $9,100 more since then (including the Giuliani contribution). By comparison, Emanuel’s campaign finished the year with $2,085,393 cash on hand.
