Online mockery of former New York City mayor Rudolph “Rudy” Giuliani continued in late November 2020 with a tweet by a newly-formed parody account that had other users fooled, if only for a moment.
The post from “@Rudy_Giuliani_” — note the underscores — stating, “This morning, I tested positive for covid-9/11” had been highlighted (or “liked”) and shared on the platform hundreds of times within just a few minutes:
Giuliani (whose actual Twitter account does not have underscores attached) did not announce that he had tested positive for COVID-19. However, his son Andrew Giuliani did reveal that he had tested positive for the disease on November 20 2020, a day after a press conference from the elder Giuliani drew attention for the wrong reasons.
Besides pushing a host of baseless claims of “voter fraud,” the former mayor — now the personal attorney for outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump — could be seen sweating to the point that a dark brown substance could be seen dripping down the sides of his face:
As the Guardian reported:
As Giuliani sweated in front of journalists, streaks of what appeared to be dark hair dye began to run down his face. The internet noticed, of course, and jokes and ridicule spread.
Worse still for the Trump campaign, the audio feed from the press conference suddenly included unknown persons asking “Can they hear us on the stream?” and discussing “Rudy’s hair dye dripping down his face”.
That press conference came just eight days after Giuliani infamously tried to push more false claims of voter fraud against Trump (who resoundingly lost the 2020 presidential election to Democratic Party candidate Joe Biden) from outside the Four Seasons Total Landscaping company, a gambit that reportedly benefited no one except the company itself.