Hubris or Madness: Biden Demands a Television Ban of Giuliani

Sept. 30, 2019 (EIRNS)—Joe Biden, a three-time front-runner for Democratic Presidential nominations, who bragged that he gave Ukraine’s former President Petro Poroshenko “six hours” to fire Ukraine’s General Prosecutor Viktor Shokin, now demands that U.S. television networks immediately ban Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani. It could be concluded that Biden is being hurt politically by Giuliani’s very limited exposé of the Ukraine matter.

“We are writing today with grave concern that you continue to book Rudy Giuliani on your air to spread false, debunked conspiracy theories on behalf of Donald Trump,” Biden campaign advisers Anita Dunn and Kate Bedingfield wrote, on campaign stationery, to executives and top political anchors at ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, and NBC, including Jake Tapper, Chuck Todd, and Chris Wallace.

“We write to demand that in service to the facts, you no longer book Rudy Giuliani, a surrogate for Donald Trump who has demonstrated that he will knowingly and willingly lie in order to advance his own narrative.... [emphasis in original]

“Giuliani is not a public official, and holds no public office that would entitle him to opine on the nation’s airwaves,” said the letter. “The decision to legitimize his increasingly outlandish and unhinged charges and behavior—calling it ‘news’—rests solely with you....

“Giving Rudy Giuliani valuable time on your air to push these lies in the first place is a disservice to your audience and a disservice to journalism,”

they conclude.

Giuliani had appeared on the CBS and ABC Sunday morning talk shows yesterday. He was also interviewed that day by Fox host Maria Bartiromo, and said he could show that Democrats had colluded with Ukraine officials against Trump’s campaign in 2016. “If you can prove that somebody else [Ukraine] did it ... then you pursue that vigorously,” he told her.