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Rudy Giuliani wore the mantle of “America’s Mayor” with pride in the days and years after 9/11. His fall from grace in recent years, however, is a far cry from the image of devoted public servant he crafted, first as a federal prosecutor going after organized crime in the 80’s, then as the mayor who salvaged New York in the 90’s. Bill Bratton was the police commissioner Giuliani picked who helped make the miracle of the Big Apple’s comeback a reality. He appeared on 710 WOR’s Len Berman and Michael Riedel program in the wake of Giuliani’s indictment in Georgia and offered a surprisingly candid opinion on his one-time boss’s downfall.
“He made his own bed, and he’s going to have to lie in it now,” Bratton recalled for Berman and Riedel. “I don’t have much empathy for what’s going on with him at the moment. He basically hooked himself to the Trump train and got derailed… what an awful place to be at in, what is he, in his late 70’s now? And the wear and tear on him, but this is a problem of his own making.”
Bratton added this what-could-have-been assessment of Giuliani: “Ego, booze, women, that combination... Public opinion polls had him down in the 15-20 percentile, despite the crime turn-around, because of his marriage issues and his failed Senate race, and 9/11 brought him back, but he then blew that opportunity in the fiasco of basically trying to orchestrate the overturning of the election. His legacy is going to be less the 90’s and 2001, 9/11. It’s going to be much more the clown show that he’s now engaged in… The troubles weren’t created for him; he created them for himself.”
Bratton also sounded a warning for the current-day NYPD as migrants continue to surge into the city. “It is a potential recipe for disaster, something that has to be watched very, very closely. As we know, the screening of these people coming into the country is minimal…(plus) we also have an elevated concern of terrorists coming in among the hordes of people crossing the border… so, something to be very concerned with, unfortunately, at this time.”
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