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Rudy Giuliani Logical Fallacies

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Rudolph "Rudy" Giuliani is a media personality who frequently invokes logical fallacies in his arguments. One of the more common logical fallacies he uses is whataboutism. Rudy Giuliani has used the whataboutism logical fallacy to advance his viewpoint that the current investigation of President Donald Trump’s ties to Russia is unworthy of merit. He committed the whataboutism logical fallacy when referencing Hillary Clinton's email scandal as a way to detract from allegations of wrongdoing pertaining to President Donald Trump. He has also used whataboutism when he referenced then-President Barack Obama's attempts to silence dissent from the media to detract from President Trump's own antagonistic behavior towards journalists. Finally, he used …show more content…

Giuliani responds by diverting attention away from President Trump's attack on the media and towards former President Obama's attacks on the press. While in the Oval Office, Obama retaliated against whistleblowers and journalists. A notable example is that of Edward Snowden. Snowden leaked classified information about the National Security Agency, including their mass surveillance programs and their partnerships with the United Kingdom’s Government Communications Headquarters. The U.S. government responded to the leak by using the Espionage Act against Snowden, thereby choosing to ignore the unethical nature of the NSA’s programs. Until the Obama presidency, it was extremely rare for sitting presidents to cite this law. However, Obama set a precedent for an increased frequency in its use. Furthermore, the U.S. government secretly seized two months’ worth of phone records from the Associated Press (AP), which contained vital information concerning AP’s confidential sources. This action infringes on the media’s ability to gather and report the news. The Obama administration’s punitive actions against the press are important to note because such actions impinge on civil rights. Even so, this is whataboutism because it takes away attention from President Trump's antagonism towards the press and directs it towards an irrelevant topic to …show more content…

He starts the fallacy by asking, "If you want to talk about liars, why don't you talk about Comey?" Afterwards, he brings up Comey's leaked memoranda. Giuliani asserts that Comey is a liar because he leaked FBI documents and because the memos contain information that is potentially damaging to President Trump. However, the release of such information does not appear to ethically compromise Comey. The Justice Department reviewed the memos before they were released. Comey himself did not release the memos. That was actually Columbia Law professor Daniel Richman. Also, the content itself appears to corroborate what others have noted about President Trump. The whataboutism showcased here is Giuliani's decision to equate Trump's lying with Comey's lying and thus effectively push back against Cuomo's arguments about Trump's lies. Any lies Comey may have told are not equivalent to Trump's lies; they are also not relevant to the assessment of Trump's

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