Stumping for Donald Trump at a rally in Ohio, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani appeared to be quite forgetful. First, he told the crowd that they know “better than he does” how great of a governor of their state is Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence—who is actually governor of Indiana. Then, in a perplexing rhetorical moment, Giuliani conveniently erased the tragedy from US history when speaking of the George W. Bush presidency.
“Under those eight years, before Obama came along, we didn’t have any successful radical Islamic terrorist attack inside the United States,” said the man who touts his performance as mayor of New York during the 9/11 attacks as his main accomplishment. “They all started when Clinton and Obama got into office.”
Of course, the former mayor didn’t actually forget about the attacks, he just wanted to underscore his point that Obama is responsible for increasing terrorism. In fact, Giuliani spoke of the 9/11 attacks just moments earlier in the same speech, when he mentioned that Pence was a member of the House Foreign Affairs and Judiciary committees ”during the time of September 11th, when we went through the worst foreign attack in our history since the War of 1812.
He added: “Remember: We didn’t start this war; they did. We don’t want this war; they do. And they didn’t start it even in 2001. They attacked the World Trade Center in 1993.”
Donald Trump himself has called Obama “the founder of ISIS,” but blamed the 9/11 attacks pretty explicitly on George W. Bush during the Republican primary.
Giuliani’s gaffe drew public criticism and inspired ruthless online mockery: