If Rudy Giuliani ever tells you a plan you have in mind is crazy, believe him. The former Mayor of New York City seems to know a lot about crazy, and can apparently even recognize it for himself—at least that’s what Seth Meyers told us on Monday night.
Meyers dedicated much of his “A Closer Look” segment to Donald Trump teasing the possibility that, if he were to run for president again—and if he actually won this time—he would consider pardons for many of the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021 (many of whom claim they did it at the former president’s urging). But in the midst of that conversation, and noting how Trump’s lawyer John Eastman had laid out a very specific plan for exactly how then-vice president Mike Pence could overturn the totally legitimate election, another interesting tidbit came to light: Rudy Giuliani—yes, that Rudy Giuliani—appears to have been the voice of reason. As Meyers explained, new evidence has come to light via the January 6th hearings that both Trump and Eastman knew that what they were encouraging Pence to do was illegal, but went ahead with it anyway:
Toward the end of Trump’s presidency, Eastman even sent an email to Rudy Giualiani casually suggesting that maybe Trump should pardon Eastman… I guess it makes sense that if you’re looking for the pardon list, you’d email Rudy Giuliani. He’s definitely the guy who came up with the idea of a pardon list. The pardon list was probably just every possible version of his own name written on the back of a steakhouse napkin. Because even Rudy, who we tend to think of as a delusional, bumbling doofus… even Rudy apparently knew the whole scheme was illegal.
That shocker came from former White House attorney Eric Herschmann, who claimed to have had “an intellectual discussion” with Rudy on the morning of January 6th that ended with Rudy agreeing that Eastman’s plan to overturn the election was illegal. Though Meyers cast some doubts on part of Herschmann’s testimony:
First of all, I doubt it was truly an intellectual discussion if Rudy Giuliani was involved. Saying you had an intellectual discussion with Rudy Giuliani is like saying you played chess with a horse. Second, it’s incredible to me that even Rudy knew it was a crazy and bad idea. RUDY! That’s how you know your plan is truly f**king insane! This is a guy who, while under multiple investigations, thought it was a good idea to do a video using an Abraham Lincoln filter. That same guy looked at John Eastman’s plan and said, ‘Ahhhhh I don’t know.’
You can watch the full clip above (the Rudy bit starts around the 5:30 mark).
