Rudy Giuliani, a Catholic, in a new interview said he was more of a Jew than liberal billionaire George Soros, who he accused of controlling one of the key witnesses in the recent impeachment hearings.
The former New York mayor is at the center of the Democrats’ impeachment case against President Trump, including claims he is directly tied to the ouster of former Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.
Ms. Yovanovitch was the first witness to publicly testify in the impeachment hearings. Her testimony did not directly address Democratic accusations that Mr. Trump used military aid to pressure Ukraine into investigating 2016 election corruption and former Vice President Joseph R. Biden — but they argued her ouster cleared the way for Team Trump to pressure Ukrainian leaders into such probes.
Mr. Giuliani continued to be critical of her in his interview with New York Magazine — claiming she was an operative of George Soros, a major backer of Democrats and left-wing causes, and denying that his saying that was an anti-Semitic dog whistle.
“Don’t tell me I’m anti-Semitic if I oppose him,” he said. “Soros is hardly a Jew. I’m more of a Jew than Soros is. I probably know more about — he doesn’t go to church, he doesn’t go to religion — synagogue. He doesn’t belong to a synagogue, he doesn’t support Israel, he’s an enemy of Israel. He’s elected eight anarchist DA’s in the United States. He’s a horrible human being,” the former mayor said.
His comments about Mr. Soros sparked a wave of backlash.
“Mr. Giuliani’s assertion that George Soros controls U.S. Ambassadors, employs FBI agents and is ’hardly a Jew’ is baffling and offensive. Let’s be crystal clear: Mr. Giuliani is not the arbiter of who is Jewish and who is not, or what is anti-Semitic and what is not,” Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt told The Daily Beast.
Mr. Giuliani recently returned from another trip to Ukraine, where he was looking for information to undermine the case against Mr. Trump.
• Gabriella Muñoz can be reached at gmunoz@washingtontimes.com.
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