Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, has won the endorsement of Rudy Giuliani’s daughter, who declared: “I’ve been grieving the loss of my dad to [Donald] Trump. I cannot bear to lose our country to him too.”
Caroline Rose Giuliani was writing in Vanity Fair, where she lamented how her father, who was once the former president’s personal attorney and trusted adviser, became caught up in the “destructive trail” and chaos of the Trump administration and its aftermath.
“I’m unfortunately well suited to remind Americans of just how calamitous being associated with Trump can be, even for those who are convinced he’s on their side,” wrote Giuliani, a California-based film-maker and activist who has frequently taken issue with her father’s political positions.
“I am constantly asking myself how America is back here, even considering the possibility of electing Donald Trump again, after all of the damage he has caused, both in office and since. There are unmistakable reminders of Trump’s destructive trail all around us, and it has broken my heart to watch my dad become one of them.”
Rudy Giuliani, who became an immensely popular mayor of New York after guiding the city through the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, paid a severe price for promoting Trump’s lies that his 2020 election defeat was fraudulent.
He was permanently disbarred from practicing law in Washington DC last week for leading the legal effort to overturn Joe Biden’s victory, and attempted to declare bankruptcy to avoid paying $148.1m in damages to two Georgia election workers he defamed.
“Watching my dad’s life crumble since he joined forces with Trump has been extraordinarily painful, both on a personal level and because his demise feels linked to a dark force that threatens to once again consume America,” Caroline Giuliani wrote, referring to Trump’s third presidential election as the Republican nominee.
“Not to disregard individual accountability in the slightest, but it would be naive for us to ignore the fact that many of those closest to Trump have descended into catastrophic downward spirals. If we let Trump back into the driver’s seat this fall, our country will be no exception.”
She described her relationship with her father as “cartoonishly complicated”.
“Despite his faults, I love him. I’ve seen him experience surreal heights, and, now, unfathomable lows. The last thing I want to do is hurt him, especially when he’s already down,” she wrote. “Plus we never know how much time we have left with our parents. The totality of that makes this the most difficult piece I’ve ever written. Yet this moment and this election are so much bigger than any of us.”
She cited Harris’s positions on reproductive rights, as well as the economy, and foreign and environmental policy, as reasons for backing her.
“We need experienced, sane, and fundamentally decent leaders who will fight for us instead of against us, who will safeguard our democracy rather than dismantle it,” she wrote.
“As a recently-engaged-to-be-married 35-year-old who hopes to feel more joyous than fearful about the potential of becoming a parent myself, I need to advocate for a future worth bringing children into.”
She also recalled how she pleaded with her father to reconsider after she learned he was considering becoming Trump’s lawyer at a New York city cigar bar.
“Surrounded by thick smoke and powerful men, I ugly-cried for a few minutes, then spent the next three hours making my vehement case to my father that he not go down this morally perilous path,” she wrote.
She said being his daughter allowed her to see flaws in Rudy Giuliani “that people blinded by his celebrity couldn’t see”.
She wrote: “The deeper my dad gets stuck in the quicksand of his problems, the more fleeting our opportunities to connect as father and daughter become.
“After months of feeling the type of sorrow that comes from the death of a loved one, it dawned on me that I’ve been grieving the loss of my dad to Trump. I cannot bear to lose our country to him too.”
