Surely one of the stranger moments of the recently completed U.S. presidential election season was when, on Sunday, October 9th, 2016, Rudy Giuliani compared Donald Trump to Augustine of Hippo. Speaking to John Dickerson on CBS’s Face the Nation, Giuliani was asked to comment on Trump’s horrifying remarks about sexually assaulting women at will. Bizarrely, Giuliani replied, “I hate to get terribly theological about it, but have you ever read the confession of Saint Augustine? I mean, the reality is that men can change, people can change.”
Most responses to Giuliani’s comments were less than warm. Scholars such as Dr. Candace West, Dr. Adam Ployd, and Dr. Elissa Cutter rushed to point out flaws in this comparison. But where did Rudy go wrong? Giuliani, it turns out, is no theological novice. Like many second-generation Italian Americans, his childhood was marinated in the Catholic tradition. After attending Manhattan College, Rudy considered the priesthood before deciding on NYU Law instead. (Both Manhattan College and Rudy’s high school were run by the De La Salle Christian Brothers.) He would continue to invoke his Catholicism when seeking forgiveness for public missteps. In 1983, he sought an annulment for his first marriage, which turned out to be to his second cousin. When defending Trump, then, Giuliani unsurprisingly appealed to absolution, the universality of sin, and the uniqueness of Christ’s perfection.
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