Culture

Rudy Giuliani Made a Transphobic Comment When Confronted About Borat Prank


 

CW: This post contains descriptions of transphobic language and jokes about statutory rape.

The Borat sequel is officially here, which means that viewers can see America’s clumsiest former mayor, Rudy Giuliani, engaging in some truly unsettling behavior.

In a scene from the follow-up to the 2006 mockumentary starring Sacha Baron Cohen as a gleefully racist, sexist anti-Semite chronicling American life, the former New York City mayor appears to fall hook, line, and sinker for a fake interview orchestrated by the film’s producers. A 24-year-old actress named Maria Bakalova (who plays Borat’s teenage daughter) poses as a journalist, and after interviewing Giuliani and getting him to agree to eat a bat, she invites him to a hotel room for a drink.

As the plainly visible cameras roll, Giuliani makes advances on the young woman, touching her and asking for her phone number and address. They then remove each others’ microphones, and Giuliani lies back on the bed as he tucks his shirt back in.

The Borat character, played by Baron Cohen, then rushes in wearing an unusual combination of pink and white undergarments, to declare that his onscreen daughter character is only fifteen. “She’s too old for you!” he exclaims.

The 76-year-old Giuliani then flees the scene, looking bewildered and asking onlookers who Borat is. He gave an interview to Page Six back in July, describing Cohen’s costume in transphobic terns, as “a crazy, what I would say was a pink transgender outfit… it looked absurd.”

It’s difficult to tell if there’s any further context for the incident, as the scene is edited and contains some cuts.

In his defense, Giuliani wrote on Twitter, “I am tucking my shirt in, I assure you, that’s all that I was doing.”

It’s unlikely that Giuliani has any legal recourse, as legal experts told USA Today. Because he’s a public figure, it would be challenging for him to block the release of Borat 2, which is titled in its entirety Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. What’s more, it’s legal to film someone without their knowledge in the state of New York, as long as one of the parties being recorded is aware of the cameras.

“If the president’s lawyer found what he did there appropriate behavior, then heaven knows what he’s done with other female journalists in hotel rooms,” Cohen said on Good Morning America. He noted that he was concerned for Bakalova during the scene, ready to rush in and ensure that her health was not jeopardized.

Asked if she felt unsafe, Bakalova said that she felt protected by the production team. “I was lucky that I had them,” she said.

Bakalova and Cohen continued infiltrating conservative events in character, getting past the lax security at CPAC, and also attending a White House event just weeks ago. “Trump very careful who he let into his events and house,” the character wrote in a Twitter post, accompanying a video showing Bakalova strolling the White House grounds. No COVID test necessary.”

It’s been an awkward few weeks for Giuliani. Intelligence officials recently warned that he was vulnerable to Russian disinformation campaigns at the same time that he was peddling a ludicrously implausible story about Hunter Biden. And earlier this month, Giuliani’s daughter urged voters to ignore him and to vote for Joe Biden.

“I may not be able to change my father’s mind, but together, we can vote this toxic administration out of office,” she said.

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