Rudy Giuliani reached straight for transphobia after Borat star filmed him with his hand down his trousers

Oct 23 2020
Written by Emma Powys Maurice

President Donald Trump’s lawyer and former New York City mayor, Rudy Giuliani (Chip Somodevilla/Getty)

With a new Borat film putting Rudy Guiliani’s reputation on the firing line, it has emerged that the former New York City mayor tragically turned to transphobia as he tried to defend himself.

In Sacha Baron Cohen‘s Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, Donald Trump’s personal attorney is caught in compromising position after being interviewed by an actor playing Borat’s daughter, who is posing as a TV journalist.

The sequence begins in a hotel suite with an interview for a fake conservative news programme, after which the woman suggests they retire to the bedroom (rigged with hidden cameras) for a drink.

The character removes Giuliani’s microphone through the bottom of his shirt, after which he is seen lying back and reaching into his trousers. Borat then runs into the room shouting: “She’s 15. She’s too old for you.” Giuliani insists he was simply adjusting his dress, and denies any impropriety.

The incident was first reported in the summer, before Cohen had officially announced the Borat sequel, after Giuliani reported it to the police.

When Guiliani later attempted to explain the compromising scene, he used a transphobic comment to describe Cohen.

“This guy [Cohen] comes running in wearing a crazy, what I would say was a pink transgender outfit,” the former New York mayor told Page Six in July.

“It was a pink bikini with lace, underneath a translucent mesh top, it looked absurd.”

Giuliani also felt the need to explain that, despite the way Cohen was dressed, he was definitely not attracted to him.

“He had the beard, bare legs, and wasn’t what I would call distractingly attractive,” he said.

Giuliani added that he only realised later on that man in the “transgender outfit” was the famous actor and comedian, and said he was proud that he wasn’t fooled by him.

That seemed doubtful to many viewers, prompting Guiliani to issue a second, more defensive response on Twitter this week.

“The Borat video is a complete fabrication,” he claimed. “I was tucking in my shirt after taking off the recording equipment. At no time before, during, or after the interview was I ever inappropriate. If Sacha Baron Cohen implies otherwise he is a stone-cold liar.”

He further suggested that the scene had been “exaggerated through editing”, continuing: “This is an effort to blunt my relentless exposure of the criminality and depravity of Joe Biden and his entire family.”

Readers are free to judge for themselves as Borat Subsequent Moviefilm is released Friday (October 23) on Amazon Prime Video.