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Eugene

(61,937 posts) Wed Nov 16, 2016, 12:50 AM Nov 2016

Rudolph Giuliani's Business Ties Viewed as Red Flag for Secretary of State Job

Source: New York Times

Rudolph Giuliani’s Business Ties Viewed as Red Flag for Secretary of State Job

By MARK LANDLER, ERIC LIPTON and JO BECKER NOV. 15, 2016

WASHINGTON — Rudolph W. Giuliani, facing a flood of questions about whether his business dealings should disqualify him from being named President-elect Donald J. Trump’s secretary of state, on Tuesday defended his lucrative 15 years in the private sector as a credential for the job.

“I have friends all over the world,” Mr. Giuliani, the former New York mayor, said in an interview. “This is not a new thing for me. When you become the mayor, you become interested in foreign policy. When I left, my major work was legal and security around the world.”

As secretary of state, Mr. Giuliani, a loyal, often ferocious backer of Mr. Trump’s candidacy, would make fighting Islamist terrorism the centerpiece of the incoming administration’s foreign policy. He vaulted to national prominence because of his leadership after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and he still views foreign policy through the prism of that day.

But Mr. Giuliani’s business ties are a major red flag. He built a lucrative consulting and speechmaking career after leaving City Hall. His firm, Giuliani Partners, has had contracts with the government of Qatar and the Canadian company that is building the Keystone XL oil pipeline, and Mr. Giuliani has given paid speeches to a shadowy Iranian opposition group that until 2012 was on the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations.

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Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/16/us/politics/donald-trump-cabinet-rudy-giuliani.html?_r=0

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LBN thread: Secretary of State Giuliani? He's the Leading Choice, Trump Aides Say

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Rudolph Giuliani's Business Ties Viewed as Red Flag for Secretary of State Job (Original Post) Eugene Nov 2016 OP

I'm fairly certain that conflicts of interest aren't something the Trumpsters are Solly Mack Nov 2016 #1

Solly Mack

(90,779 posts)

1. I'm fairly certain that conflicts of interest aren't something the Trumpsters are

Reply to Eugene (Original post)

Wed Nov 16, 2016, 05:59 AM

Nov 2016

concerned about.

Republican Senators aren't either.

I'm not one of those people who think a president deserves the cabinet they want because we can end up with some truly horrific people in powerful positions that way.

Congress, be it the Senate or the House, does not owe the office of President a rubber stamp approval on anything. Congress is supposed to be a form of checks and balances. A role they have sorely misused and abused.

Republican congressional members, both House and Senate, have not acted out of what is best for the country or in a spirit of compromise. They have acted out of zealous partisanship and the country has suffered for it.

The assumption behind the tradition of confirming a president's cabinet without much challenge is that next time around the same courtesy will be given to the opposing party.

How's that been working out?

The other assumption is implied - that the person being nominated will at least be qualified and has the ability to hold the cabinet position (or other positions) for which they have been nominated.

Think of all the times that hasn't been the case.

Think of all the obstruction by the GOP.

Now think who will be president in 2017.

It's not respecting the office of the president to give Trump free reign. It wasn't respect for the office to allow Shrub free reign either. It was foolish and dangerous. It will be more so now.

Fighting Trump at every turn might not produce a victory, but I'd rather be on the opposing side of a white nationalist White House than helping to prop it up. There is no making the best of a bad situation when your president is a racist, misogynistic and highly dangerous blowhard who nominates people equally as bad as himself, and who chooses an openly white nationalist as his go-to guy.

Bending over and placating is precisely where Trump (and the GOP) wants Congressional Democrats. To think you can reach an understanding with the deranged mind is to abdicate all reason.

Overlook me. I'm just ranting.

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