Rudy Giuliani says he's 'more of a Jew' than George Soros, who survived the Holocaust

• Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani told New York Magazine in a wide-ranging interview that he is "more of a Jew" than George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist and Democratic activist.
• Giuliani was raised Roman Catholic. Soros is a Holocaust survivor.
• "Don't tell me I'm anti-Semitic if I oppose him," Giuliani said. "Soros is hardly a Jew. I'm more of a Jew than Soros is. I probably know more about - he doesn't go to church, he doesn't go to religion - synagogue."
• "He doesn't belong to a synagogue, he doesn't support Israel, he's an enemy of Israel," Giuliani continued. "He's elected eight anarchist [district attorneys] in the United States. He's a horrible human being."
• He also parroted a common anti-Semitic trope on the right which claims Soros controls the American media. And he alleged, without evidence, that Marie Yovanovitch, the US's former ambassador to Ukraine, is "controlled" by Soros.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York and President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, told New York Magazine in an interview that he's "more of a Jew" than George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist and Democratic activist.

"Don't tell me I'm anti-Semitic if I oppose him," Giuliani said. "Soros is hardly a Jew. I'm more of a Jew than Soros is. I probably know more about - he doesn't go to church, he doesn't go to religion - synagogue. He doesn't belong to a synagogue, he doesn't support Israel, he's an enemy of Israel. He's elected eight anarchist [district attorneys] in the United States. He's a horrible human being."

Giuliani is not Jewish and was raised Roman Catholic. Soros is Jewish and a Holocaust survivor.

The former New York mayor also parroted a common anti-Semitic trope on the right which claims Soros controls the American media and gets the press to print lies about him and the president. He went to allege that Marie Yovanovitch, the US's former ambassador to Ukraine, is "controlled" by Soros, according to New York Magazine.

"He put all four ambassadors there," Giuliani told the outlet. "And he's employing the FBI agents."

There is no evidence that any of these claims hold merit. When Olivia Nuzzi, the author of the piece, told Giuliani he sounded crazy, he "insisted he wasn't," Nuzzi reported.

Giuliani is one of the players at the center of Congress' sprawling impeachment inquiry into Trump. Last week, the House of Representatives impeached Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress related to his Ukraine dealings.

A cascade of witness testimony in the inquiry revealed that Trump and Giuliani carried out a months-long campaign to pressure Ukraine into investigating former Vice President Joe Biden, Trump's 2020 political rival, and a discredited conspiracy theory alleging Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election.

While doing so, Trump froze a nearly $400 million military-aid package to Ukraine and held up a White House meeting that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky desperately sought.

Giuliani, in particular, was instrumental in Yovanovitch's abrupt ouster earlier this year after she refused to help him dig up or manufacture dirt against the Bidens in Ukraine.

Yovanovitch and a slew of career diplomats and foreign service officers testified that Giuliani embarked on a "smear campaign" against her when she stood in his way.

His efforts to dismiss her are now the subject of a federal criminal investigation into Giuliani from the Southern District of New York, which is examining whether he broke foreign lobbying laws while engineering Yovanovitch's ouster.