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Giuliani to Obama: Be more like Bill Cosby!

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

At some point, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani had the opportunity to look inside Barack Obama’s heart, and he discovered something troubling there: that the president does not love America, and it’s because “he wasn’t brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up, through love of this country.”

An interview with AM970 that aired Thursday offered a few additional peeks into the outspoken politician’s thinking — which seems to have taken a bizarre turn recently to focus almost exclusively on the things that are wrong with black people, both individually and as a group.

Here’s some of what listeners learned about his outlook, according to the New York Daily News’ account of the conversation:

  • He blames Obama for the shooting of police in Ferguson. Why? “It all starts at the top. It’s the tone that’s set by the president,” he said.
  • ...and for a recent fight inside a Brooklyn McDonald’s. (We can only assume this falls under the rule about tone, as well.)
  • He thinks Obama should emulate Bill Cosby (but not in that way). For a person who’s so fixated on tackling crime head-on, Giuliani certainly tiptoed gently around the more than two dozen sexual assault allegations and ongoing litigation against the 77-year-old comedian when he held Cosby up as an example of someone who had the right outlook. To be fair, he did say, “I hate to mention it because of what happened afterward” — a nod to the rape claims — before recommending that Obama “say the kinds of stuff Bill Cosby used to say” about African Americans and crime. This was an apparent reference to Cosby’s infamous hypocritical rants scolding black people for moral failures in every area of life.

Further reading:

Who’s to blame for the shooting of police officers in Ferguson?

Rape allegations and race rants - Cosby’s biggest issue is that he loves power

The worst part about Giuliani’s crazy Obama comments: they have a real constituency

Bill Cosby made a video wearing pajamas but said nothing about the rape allegations

How subconscious racism complicates racial disparities in policing

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