Rudy Giuliani blames Game of Thrones for his Capitol attack riot speech
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images; HELEN SLOAN/HBO
Former respected New York City mayor turned President Trump fixer and unintentional Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm star Rudy Giuliani is blaming Game of Thrones for inspiring his inciteful-sounding speech leading up to last Wednesday's MAGA assault on the U.S. Capitol.
Giuliani told hordes of Trump-worshiping wildlings in D.C. shortly before the riot "let's have trial by combat!" with Democratic legislators and election officials.
Giuliani told The Hill's White House reporter Brett Samuels that the HBO fantasy hit inspired the term.
"I was referencing the kind of trial that took place for Tyrion in that very famous documentary about fictitious medieval England," Giuliani said. "When Tyrion, who is a very small man, is accused of murder. He didn't commit murder, he can't defend himself, and he hires a champion to defend him."
Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) twice invoked "trial by combat" in the series, first when on trial at the Eyrie in season one, and then again when on trial at the Red Keep in season four. Given that both trials resulted in a violent sword fight that left a person dead, it's not immediately clear how referring to those sequences makes any of what he said better.
Also: "Documentary"?
Documentary...
Giuliani went on to add that he was actually referring to a trial "between machines" — apparently referring to voting machines that Trump's team has falsely claimed for months were rigged against him (and not, it seems, the hosts on HBO's sci-fi documentary Westworld).
"It incited no violent response from the crowd," Giuliani added. "None. The crowd didn't jump up saying, 'Lock him up, throw him to jail, go to hell.' I've had speeches where people jump up and say, 'lock him up.' It was not an emotional — it was not an emotion-inspiring part of the speech."
Giuliani is facing possible expulsion from the New York State Bar over the quotes. And according to The New York Times, a group of former assistant U.S. attorneys say Giuliani's comments contributed to loss of life and inflicted damage on the country.
In any case, Giuliani's days as the president's defender will soon be over given that voters have elected Joe Biden, effectively pushing Trump out the Moon Door next week. Hopefully, Biden will do a better job of keeping all those dragons out of the wrong hands moving forward.
Related content:
