We don’t do much with the Media Research Center’s MRCTV content — it’s effectively the organization’s B team, generating a lower grade of outrageous, ranty right-wing clickbait then that of even NewsBusters (there’s a reason the right-wing blog CNSNews.com was reduced to was moved there). But sometimes, the content gets so crazy and bizarre that it needs to be commented upon. Nick Kangadis — who we last saw noping out of judging Tucker Carlson’s softball interview with Vladimir Putin, even though being judgmental is kind of his job — served up some extremely wrongheaded judgment regarding Rudy Giuliani in a July 2 post:
The ‘Banana Republic’ of New York has struck again. This time the state has targeted a man they once praised as “America’s Mayor” following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court of New York Appellate Division disbarred former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani over his protestations of the results of the 2020 presidential election.
And there it is. It’s not because he necessarily did anything illegal, it’s because Giuliani had the audacity of supporting former President Donald Trump.
That’s the truth. Let’s get real. Can we live in reality for a minute?
Sure, let’s get real. Kangadis quoted only from the part of the New York ruling — that is, the tiny snippet of the ruling reprinted in the right-wing Post Millennial. If he had bothered to read the entire ruling, he would know that Giuliani was not disbarred for simply “supporting former President Donald Trump” — he knowingly lied to the court, even while under oath, and was uncooperative and even lied to the tribunal overseeing his disbarment hearing:
Contrary to respondent’s allegations, there is nothing on the record before us that would permit the conclusion that respondent lacked knowledge of the falsehood of the numerous statements that he made, and that he had a good faith basis to believe them to be true. On the contrary, as the Referee properly found, the 16 acts of falsehoods carried out by respondent were deliberate and constituted a transparent pattern of conduct intended and designed to deceive. More specifically, as the Referee aptly described, respondent “told numerous lies in the numerous forums all designed to create distrust of the elective system of our country in the minds of the citizens and to destroy their confidence in the legitimacy of our government.” Undeterred, respondent went as far as to attempt to deceive this tribunal by his numerous inconsistent statements before the Referee and the AGC.
As to the sanction, the Referee’s disbarment recommendation is amply supported by the record and should be confirmed. The seriousness of respondent’s misconduct cannot be overstated. Respondent flagrantly misused his prominent position as the personal attorney for former President Trump and his campaign, through which respondent repeatedly and intentionally made false statements, some of which were perjurious, to the federal court, state lawmakers, the public, the AGC, and this Court concerning the 2020 Presidential election, in which he baselessly attacked and undermined the integrity of this country’s electoral process. In so doing, respondent not only deliberately violated some of the most fundamental tenets of the legal profession, but he also actively contributed to the national strife that has followed the 2020 Presidential election, for which he is entirely unrepentant. The aggravation cited by the Referee, which includes respondent’s disruptive and disrespectful behavior during the hearing, significantly outweighs the mitigation and only adds to the case for his disbarment.
Still, Kangadis concluded by dishonestly whining:
Defense attorneys defend murderers and other criminals, trying to persuade the court of their clients’ innocence despite possibly knowing the contrary. To me, that’s much more egregious than believing something to be wrong with an election.
Whatever you think about the 2020 election, you are ENTITLED to your opinion. You could be verifiably wrong, but that’s doesn’t preclude you from believing whatever it is you think.
This is how our society has become. The establishment builds someone up until they become beloved, only for those same people to come for that person and attempt to destroy them. It’s been this way for a while, but it’s almost at a ‘rinse and repeat’ pace at this point.
Kangadis rather deliberately missed the point. Giuliani was disbarred precisely because he lied to the court, not for having an opinion. Nobody said that having an opinion was illegal, and Kangadis is being dishonest by framing Giuliani’s disbarment as a matter of opinion rather than one of law.
By aggressively ignoring reality, Kangadis flunked his own directive to “get real.”