Rudy Giuliani Attacks ‘Slimy’ Joe Biden, Says Press Has ‘Covered Up’ Reports About V.P.’s Family

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani blasted Joe Biden on Sunday by saying “this town protects” the former vice president and calling him “slimy.”

“His family has been taking money from his public office for years,” Giuliani, a lawyer for President Donald Trump, said of Biden in an interview on Fox News. “Ladies and gentlemen, go look at what the press has been covering up.”

Giuliani’s remarks come amid efforts from the White House to dismiss reports that Trump urged Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky to probe Biden and his son over business they allegedly held in the country. In 2014, Biden’s son Hunter joined the board of directors of a Cyprus-based oil and gas company called Burisma Holdings. According to The Wall Street Journal and several other news outlets, Joe Biden threatened in March 2016 to pull $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees to Ukraine if the country didn’t immediately fire the top prosecutor who was reportedly investigating Burisma at the time.

“I went there to get dirt on Joe Biden,” Giuliani said on Sunday. “I got a nice straight case of Ukrainian collusion, and the minute I say ‘Biden’ the Washington press corps is going to go nuts. They’ve been covering it up for years.”

“These are very important things that have been covered up to protect slimy Joe,” he added.

Giuliani also called Hunter Biden a “drug addict” during Sunday’s interview.

Both Trump and Giuliani recently admitted to pressuring Ukraine’s government to launch an inquiry into Biden, the front-runner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. Trump reportedly asked Zelensky to investigate Biden eight times during a phone call in July. This development is also important because it follows reports that a U.S. intelligence official filed an “urgent” whistleblower complaint with the inspector general after voicing concern over an alleged “promise” Trump made to an unnamed foreign leader. However, National Intelligence Director Joseph Maguire refused to comply with a congressional committee’s demand to hand over the complaint.

“Of course I did,” Giulani told CNN’s Chris Cuomo last week after being asked if he had personally contacted Ukraine to probe Biden. The former New York mayor initially said he had called Ukraine to investigate claims that the country’s government intervened in the 2016 presidential election to help Hillary Clinton win.

According to fact-checking nonprofit PolitiFact, the accusations against Biden are merely “half-true.” The organization’s website noted that the allegations exaggerate “by assuming that Joe Biden acted to protect the company his son was affiliated with.”