Giuliani: What Happened to America's Mayor? (2023): Season 1, Episode 1 - The Myth - full transcript

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[Giuliani on microphone] Over
the next ten days,

we get to see the machines
that are crooked,

the balances that
are fraudulent,

and if we're wrong,
we will be made fools.

But if we're right,
a lot of them will go to jail.

[crowd cheering]

So let's have trial by combat!

[crowd clamoring]

When Giuliani appeared
alongside Donald Trump,

on January 6th,
what came to my mind

was... was the riot
at City Hall.



[crowd clamoring and chanting]

[reporter] They marched around
City Hall Park in a peaceful
and orderly fashion.

But then, minutes later,
thousands of cops

stormed through the barricades
and ran on top of cars

as they charged the stairs
of City Hall.

People called it at the time
the riot of the oppressors.

A riot of policemen.

You have a bunch
of off-duty cops...

[reporter] ...took over
the roadway
of the Brooklyn Bridge,

jumped on cars,
stormed City Hall...

[Bischoff] They're saying
that their jobs
had become too difficult,

and that they didn't have
the support that they needed,

and they wanted a much
tougher hand.

[crowd chanting] Dinkins
must go! Dinkins must go!



These were some angry
looking white men.

Now you gotta see the setting.

This is at City Hall.
City Hall is under siege.

[Louis] And you know,
right in the middle of all
that craziness,

on September 16th, 1992,
is candidate Rudy Giuliani.

The mayor doesn't know
why the morale

of the New York City
Police Department is so low.

He blames it on me.

He blames it on you.

The reason the morale
of the police department
of the city of New York

is so low is one reason
and one reason alone!

David Dinkins!

[crowd cheering]

They were cheering him on.
They were saying, "David
Dinkins, we don't want him."

Some of them
were calling out "nigger,"
for instance.

[Segarra] This is the NYPD
at City Hall,
using the n-word.

That really hurt the mayor,
and then he... he said,

"Would they have done this
if I was a white man?"

[man] There was just a sense
of disgust.

This man wants to be mayor
and look how he's behaving.

Bull[bleep] !

[Dyja] The fact that
he signed on
and participated in something

that clearly had just overt
racism attached to it

was an indicator
of where he was going.

The suggestion
that I incited them

or I had anything to do
with that is totally wrong,
it's false!

When January 6th happened,
anybody who was covering
or watching politics in 1992,

I'm sure the same
lightbulb went off for them

as it did for me,
which is like,

"That's the guy
that we remember."

My grandfather,
he was somebody who
lived around New York,

New Jersey, his entire life.

He watched what happened
here closely,

and, uh, as Giuliani
came onto the scene
and then became mayor,

he said very aptly
that Giuliani was a...

a bewoke son of a bitch.

Lots of people who couldn't
stand him

came around to a real sense
of enduement with him

because he got some things
done that were important,

and that substantially changed
the city for the better.

[Bratton] He's
an extraordinarily
complex individual.

Smart, smart, smart,
hard, hard, hard-working.

[Bromwich] He had
a little bit of...

Not a little bit, he had a lot
of a kind of
a Superman complex

that you know,
he could do anything.

[Giuliani] My real ambition
was someday

be United States attorney
in the Southern District
of New York,

which I finally attained.

[Preston] The US
Attorney's Office
of the Southern District

is the most prestigious
in the country.

And Rudy Giuliani made
a major mark
in New York City

shortly after he arrived
in the role.

[Giuliani] I was
very fortunate to find
something that I can do

that I had some natural
talent for,

and that engaged my interests
and that I enjoyed.

I enjoy working as a lawyer.

[Mack] There's probably
nothing more challenging

to a up and coming litigator
than trying cases.

You are constantly on display.

You are constantly meeting
the arguments of very good
defense lawyers.

It's a nonstop
day-to-day interaction

in which you
are constantly under assault,

and Rudy was good at that.

I think that's
what Rudy wanted.

He's not afraid of the fire.

He's not afraid
of the fire today!

[Giuliani] We have to do
securities fraud
because we have

two stock markets
here in New York.

We have to do drug work
because we have
a big drug problem.

And we have to do
organized crime work

because we have five organized
crime families

that have decided,
since the turn of the century,

to locate themselves
here in New York...

...and have acquired
a tremendous amount

of political power,
economic power,

and all sorts of other
kinds of power.

[reporter 1] For the tenth
time in less than two weeks,

a body has been found,
killed gangland
style in New York.

[reporter 2] Carmine Galante,
one of the underworld's
most powerful figures,

was gunned down.

I think living now
in New York,

it's hard to imagine
what role the mob played

in a lot of aspects
of the city.

[reporter] Joe Colombo Sr.
was lying on the ground
badly wounded,

shot in the head
and bleeding profusely.

People feared the Mafia.
They feared organized
crime back then.

The Mafia,
or we used to call it,

La Cosa Nostra,
or LCN for short,

infiltrated every aspect
of life, uh, in New York City.

[reporter] These people
probably don't even know it.

The price they paid
for their clothes more
than likely included a tax.

An organized crime hidden tax

that is placed on items that
evolved from businesses
or industries

where organized crime
has significant influence.

[Goldstock] The modern mob
was formed around 1930.

They moved into a variety
of industries by the 50s.

Well, you pay dues
to the association,

and, uh, it was like a, uh,
select few in there

that were, uh,
more or less organized.

So I said, "Well,
what if I want to call
another garbage guy?"

Uh, and this guy said,
"Try it."

This was just widely accepted
as the way things were,

and not something
to tamper with.

[DeVecchio] The hierarchy
of the Cosa Nostra,

the boss, the underboss,
were well insulated
from most criminal activities.

So it was the low-level
street guys that were doing
the work.

They were the ones that
took the rap.

And you had plenty behind them
that take their spots,

so law enforcement was, uh,
handcuffed in many respects.

[Giuliani] New York has five
organized crime families,

and they have been permitted
to grow and grow
and grow and grow.

[DeVecchio] When Rudy
took over the office

and got involved in this case,
he was very
enthusiastic about it.

Very engaging,
anxious to get the case going.

My great grandfather,
when he was an immigrant
in Brooklyn,

and the Black Hand
at that time

wanted him to pay
protection money to them.

When people say the original
Mafia and there is...

these organizations
don't exist,

I mean, I know from
my history that there
is such a thing,

and I know what it does
and what it can do.

The FBI sometime several
years before

Rudy became the US Attorney,
had decided to focus
in a big way

on the five New York
Mafia families.

They had devoted
separate squads to focus
on individual families,

but Rudy had the idea,
"Well, let's make the biggest
of all Mafia cases...

...where our targets
are the heads
of the five families."

[Giuliani] The Commission case
was something that I developed

and actually showed him
before I became
United States Attorney

when I was reading some
of the materials,

and reading
Joe Bonanno's book,

it occurred to me that
we could do
a racketeering case

against the Commission
of the Mafia.

[DeVecchio] Joe Bonanno
was the head of
the Bonanno family years ago

who was in retirement,
wrote a book called
A Man of Honor.

[Mack] He had basically
written the book to describe

his interaction with the mob.

I remember Rudy reading
us passages from
the book about the Commission,

and said, you know,
"This would be a great case

that he would
take on personally."

[Goldstock] One of
the attributes that he had,

which I think
was very important,

was that he tried to see
how things could be done,

rather than finding reasons
for not doing them.

The really good lawyers
are those that spot the issues

and then figure out legally
how you can accomplish
what you want to do.

[Giuliani] First,
we can expose.

That is a very,
very important ingredient

in taking some
of their power away,
not all of their power.

Because as I said,
they operate through secrecy.

It is also very important
for the public to see
what we do.

[Bromwich] There was a real
sense that Rudy

was the dominant personality
in that office,

and he did not brook dissent.

He wanted people
to agree with him.

There was a joke around
the office

that the people around him
were members
of the "Yes Rudy" tribe.

Because they said,
"Yes, Rudy."

"Yes, Rudy."

When he said, "Jump,"
they said, "How high?"

[Preston] So Giuliani
was taking on the Mafia!

And he wasn't only
being fearless,

he was being smart about

how he was going
to prosecute an organization

and people who had been
able to evade

successful and effective
prosecutions for many,
many years.

[DeVecchio] We had ample
evidence of what we called
The Jaguar Tapes,

in which Anthony Corallo,

who was the head
of the Lucchese family...

...he was driven around
in his Jaguar,

and used it, kind of,
as an office.

[man speaking on recording]

They recorded everything
that happened,

and it was like a gold mine
of information,

because he just spilled
his guts.

Giuliani was enthused
about the Corallo tapes.

It directly corroborated
that the Commission existed,

and that the organized
crime families were, in fact,

committing whatever illegal
acts they were committing.

It is called The Commission,

the inner council that runs
organized crime
in this country.

[reporter] Led by the reputed
boss of all bosses
Paul Castellano,

head of the Gambino family,

four of New York's
five godfathers appeared
in federal court

to face a wide range
of racketeering charges.

This is a great day
for law enforcement,

but this is a bad day,
probably the worst,
for the Mafia.

Guilty verdicts today
in the federal trial

of a group of mobsters.

[reporter 2] Guilty of all
22 counts of racketeering,

conspiracy, and extortion.

[Giuliani] Judge Owen
gave the kind of sentence
that you have to give

to habitual criminals
who at... at bottom
are murderers.

He put them in prison, uh,
hopefully for the rest
of their lives.

[DeVecchio] Rudy was
very successful in taking out
the Mafia as we knew it.

He was the motivating factor.

He masterminded the case
through the indictment and...

...conviction stage.

[Preston] When Giuliani
won the case
against the Commission,

he clearly set himself apart

in the city as someone
who could get the job done.

[Giuliani] When I came
into office,
my first big mob case,

one of the people involved
in it put out a contract

to kill me for $400,000.

And then in the last year
that I was in office,

one of the same groups
put out a contract on my life
for only $200,000.

[laughing] You had diminished.

Thanks a lot, guys.

[Stewart] One of the things
that I find, you know,

somewhat tragic about
the arc of his career,

is that a lot of what he said
at the time

actually made some sense.

[Giuliani] Crime
is a complex problem.

That doesn't mean that
it's a problem that
cannot be dealt with.

It means that it's a problem
that is going to require

a lot more than
a few quick fixes
or a few slogans,

uh, to really turn around.

Clearly, he was...

...advancing his own cause,
burnishing his own fame.

But there was always
this tension...

...between genuine,
public service and...

...the purely egomaniacal
pursuit of the greater glory
of Giuliani.

For so long,
they were aligned.

It did result in
enhanced reputation
for Giuliani personally,

and achievements that people
appreciated and admired.

We've had, uh,
alarming increases in
the levels of homicide,

in the levels of muggings
and rapes and robberies,
and burglaries.

I believe that same increase
has taken place in the white
collar areas as well.

[reporter 1] Wall Street today
posted its second biggest
gain in history.

[reporter 2] The Dow Jones
Average broke the 2,400 mark
for the first time ever.

[reporter 3] The Amex up 5.22.
That's a record, too.

It's incredible out there.
It really is.

There was just suddenly
tremendous money and power,

and influence on Wall Street.

[all cheering]

[Preston] People were
making money hand over fist.

And it was a group of people
that weren't all that shy

about showing off.

[reporter 1] They call
themselves yuppies.

[reporter 2] Brokers
and Wall Street traders,

most of them are in their 20s.

A lot of them make
$80,000, $100,000,
$200,000 a year.

[woman 1] We're going
for the six figure.

That's all we want.

[Stewart] You were beginning
to see the divide
between the one percent

and kind of everyone else.

[woman 2 shouting] We're
the generation
that you betrayed!

That's who we are!
That's who we are,
you betrayed us!

The resentment for those
people who got ahead

was really great in the city.

It's become a four-letter
word, almost.

Like, "Oh, you yup."

Or, "Look at those yups
and their yuplets,"

and they're just... raising
prices and... and glitzing
up the neighborhood,

and none of us can afford it
even though we've got

our rent control apartments,
they're turning everything
into condominiums

and co-ops, and...
it's like, what about
the rest of us?

You know, there's a reason
Wall Street and Gordon Gekko

is set in the 1980s.

Greed...

...for lack
of a better word...

...is good.

[Louis] A lot
of that stuff was real.

People were
ostentatiously wealthy,
ostentatiously greedy,

and the king of that crowd
was Donald Trump.

[Trump] Forget Paris,
and forget London,
and forget everything else.

New York City is where
it's at.

[Tomasky] I don't know how
close Giuliani and Trump
were personally in the 1980s.

But I do know they occupied
similar spaces.

[Louis] They're outer
borough guys.

One thing that
they have inherited
from their fathers

is a certain kind of awe
and resentment

of Manhattan
and those rich people.

Rudy represented the kind
of every guy who came
from the boroughs

who came to New York
and made it big.

If you or a person
that's looking
at a snow globe,

if you will, from the outside,
even if you end up inside
the snow globe,

you'll always feel like
an outsider.

[Stewart] Giuliani didn't
come from
the upper-crust establishment.

That may have
fueled his ambition.

Did it also contribute
to some deep sense
of insecurity...

...that he was an outsider?

And in that, maybe he does
identify with Trump.

[Siegel] Rudy Giuliani
was born in East Flatbush
in Brooklyn in the 40s.

So not very far in time,
and not very far in distance

from where Donald Trump
was born.

[Schwartzman] He was the first
and only child
of Harold and Helen.

They'd had trouble conceiving.

And so his arrival was like
a gift from heaven.

They lived
on Hawthorne Street.

It was a blue collar
Italian neighborhood.

They were a...
a little trinity.

On the kitchen wall,
there was some kind

of decoration with all three
of their names,

and I think that Rudy
was the star of the family.

A theme that runs through
his life is that

he's gotta be at the center
of the action.

He's gotta be the guy,
and I think it started
on Hawthorne Street

with mom and dad
where he was the star.

[Giuliani] I was born
and I grew up
one mile from Ebbets Field.

[announcer] Ebbets Field.

The home of the Dodgers,
a Brooklyn institution.

The signs tell the story
of Brooklyn's love
for its own Bums,

as they fondly
call their team.

[Giuliani] My father, however,
was born in Manhattan.

So his revenge was to make
me a Yankee fan.

[Dyja] Rudy is a very
complicated person.

He grows up in Brooklyn
a Yankees fan,

so he's always a little bit
of a contrarian.

[Smith] In 1950s Brooklyn,
the Dodgers were

closer to a borough religion.

In that kind of strong
cultural bias,

to be a Yankee fan,
in Brooklyn,

would take either a lot
of guts or a lot of stupidity.

I've been a Yankee fan
since the day I was born.

[Sheinkopf] This is like
condemning yourself
to complete isolation.

He told stories about
growing up in Brooklyn,

his love for the Yankees...

Walking around in his
mini Yankees uniform...

...took a lot of verbal
and physical abuse.

When I was two years old,
I was thrown in the mud

by the other kids
on the block.

So I became a very
determined Yankee fan.

It's a sign of independence.

But it gave Rudy
a lifelong sense

of being the outsider,
the underdog.

He would do what he wanted
when he wanted,

and force people whether
they liked it or not
to pay attention.

Undoubtedly made him...

...you know,
pugnacious to some degree
that we've seen...

...throughout the rest
of his life.

[Bromwich] Because of
the spotlight Rudy brought
to the Southern District,

there was a measure of pride
in the office.

There was a sense
of greater aggressiveness.

Rudy really wanted to make
big cases,
lots of big cases,

and win those cases.

There's no doubt that America
in the 1980s, uh,

faces a crime problem...

...uh, that is a major
social problem for us.

[Schwartzman] Jimmy Breslin
said he's a small man
in search of a balcony.

He has to find something
that he can correct.

He's the corrector.

[Giuliani] The three
complaints charged
these three defendants

and an unidentified
confidential informant

with carrying out a scheme
to exchange information

to obtain millions of dollars
in illegal profits.

[Dyja] Wall Street
and New York
starts to feel like

the party has gone on
a couple hours too long.

And at the same time,
you're seeing

a lot of different kinds
of corruption

emerging throughout the city.

Experts say that this
is the biggest scandal

ever to hit Wall Street,

even bigger than some
of those of the 20s.

[Stewart] Insider trading
can hurt a lot of people.

It's breaking and entering
into the stock account.

Well, insider trading
is a form of cheating.

When a... an investor
makes a decision to buy
or sell a stock,

what they can't do is use
confidential information

that is guaranteed
to increase a stock price.

If you were a high ranking
person, you happen
to get this information,

of course you
could make money,

but the average
American couldn't.

And they were cashing in,
coming away with
tens of millions

or even hundreds of millions
of dollars.

[Preston] And there
was Giuliani,

the prosecutor
for the little people,

taking on those titans
of Wall Street...

...making sure that
the white collar criminals

as well as the Mafia
and organized crime

were gonna be
held accountable.

[Giuliani] Maybe we
can't catch all of them,

but we sure as heck
can deliver a message,

which is if you do get caught,
you are gonna
lose your liberty.

You're gonna go to prison.

In 1986, I remember
this vividly,

Dennis Levine got arrested.

[reporter] The biggest insider
trading deal anybody's ever
heard of, Dennis Levine,

made millions trading
on insider information.

I realize that I've committed
very serious crimes

for which I'm very sorry.

And it was a very
painful lesson to learn.

[Stewart] That was
the beginning
of this giant scandal

that Giuliani was able
to pursue and capitalize on

and get a lot
of publicity for.

It really went to the heart
of this, you know,

money-making machine
on Wall Street.

Wall Street has been hit
by yet another
insider trading scandal.

[Stewart] The merger
and acquisition boom...

It's ten years
behind bars for one
of America's richest men.

[Stewart] The rise
of the junk bond world.

[reporter 1] The once
omnipotent Wall Street king

was left staggering
off his throne.

[Stewart] The raiders,
the hostile takeovers...

[reporter 2] Once one
of Wall Street's mightiest,

Ivan Boesky appeared
for sentencing,
in the judge's words,

"humiliated, vilified,
and cut down to size."

And all of that was entwined
with what was a deeply
corrupt system.

You find for me
in the law where
the United States Congress

has distinguished
multi-billion dollar
financial firms

from other institutions,
and, uh, you show me
where that is.

Rudy created
the character of himself
as a working class,

seam-straight, street-wise,

New Yorker who wasn't gonna
take all the bullshit

from these elites.

Rudy knew that he was
igniting a populist revolt

against this class of people.

It is like the American
narrative of the little guy

who stands up and turns
things over.

A little guy who can finally
hand back to the people

who have humiliated him
or disappointed him.

That's the American thing,
you know?

The federal
government investigation
of insider trading

on Wall Street
has widened dramatically.

[reporter 2] The arrests
and the fraud
charges were announced

by US Attorney
Rudolph Giuliani.

Complaints allege, uh...

...illegal profits of millions
and millions of dollars.

[reporter 2] Wall Street isn't
used to the sight of its best
and brightest in handcuffs.

He used that office
very strategically,

and produced
extraordinary wins

that made him a hero
to many people.

[Johnson] Rudy really
did redefine
the modern image

of what a federal prosecutor
is today.

He raised the visibility
of the job

of US Attorney nationwide.

And there was a lot
of speculation of about

what Rudy was gonna
do next
when he left.

We all knew that he was not
gonna go into some sleepy
law firm practice.

[reporter] Have you made
a decision of running
for mayor yet?

Could we... Could we
take that up later?

Rudy Giuliani was looking
for the next thing.

What's the next thing?
Mayor of the city of New York.

[Collins] In the 1980s,

I knew if he wanted
to be mayor, he would get it.

Because he was that driven,
he was that ambitious,

he wanted to be
a power player,

he wanted to have influence.

And I think he more or less
thought he was running
New York

when he was head
of the Southern District!

[reporter] The lines
are drawn,

and the battle has begun.

Former U.S. Attorney,
Rudy Giuliani,

launched his formal campaign
today to capture city hall
from Mayor Koch.

[Tomasky]
Rudy announced
his candidacy in 1989,

in the same where
Fiorello La Guardia

first announced his candidacy.

In 1933,
Fiorello LaGuardia
stood in this room...

...and asked the people
of New York...

...to embrace a candidacy
based not on political
name tags,

but on integrity, leadership...

...and vision.

La Guardia, for most
of Rudy's lifetime,

was the prototypical mayor.

In La Guardia's case,
he was fighting the corruption
of Tammany Hall,

against great odds,

with a larger than life
kind of tabloid personality.

This is no time
for sob stuff and whining.

Now is the time to fight,
to fight for the best
interests of our city.

[Giuliani] Let me repeat
it one more time:

no deals for jobs,

no deals for contributors.

What you see is what you get.

[applause]

[John Avlon]
So that was very much
a model for Rudy,

someone who's gonna
take on, sort of, Democratic
Party corruption,

and excesses,
and... and bureaucracy,

and breathe new life
and a spirit of reform
into the city.

[man on speakerphone]
Say hi to Rudy Giuliani,
our next mayor.

Come on over
and say hi to Rudy Giuliani.

- Give me a kiss.
- Aw!

I believe in him,
and I'm all for him.

I like the way he's talkin'.

[cheering]

[Bischoff] Rudy was an
out-of-borough guy.

Not too handsome.

Not too tall.

A little crabby.

Maybe sometimes a little...

...loopy in what he said.

That was good.

Darn right, mistakes
have been made, sure.

I'm a democrat who has...
I'm a La Guardia republican.

I get a lot of criticism
for my haircut.

[talk show host]
Why do you want
to be mayor?

Well, this is a great city,
it's a city I love.

I was a born here.

I've grown up here.
Gone to school here.

I think the city
is in terrible trouble,

more murders last year
than ever before.

The drug problem
out of control.

[Siegel] Rudy Giuliani
is presenting himself

as the guy who can
get things done.

Who's proven that he can
get things done,

as a prosecutor,
as a figure around New York...

...who wants to turn
the city, uh, around.

I'm gonna be running
against the acknowledged
past of New York City.

And I represent the future
of New York City.

Who can reduce crime better?

Who can get the drug
problem under control better?

Who's up to dealing
with the fiscal crisis?

All the issues the city
was facing,

crime, crack, everything else,

we were gonna run
against that.

Are you happy with the way
things are in New York City
right now?

[crowd] No!

Are you satisfied
with the amount of crime
in this city?

[crowd] No!

Are you satisfied
with the condition
of the streets?

[crowd] No!

[Giuliani] This is Ed Koch,
your mayor.

You know, the sanitation
department cannot sweep
the street,

if you don't move
your illegally parked car.

Ed Koch was the mayor
at the time.

Uh, three term incumbent.

[man] Say hello
to Dave Dinkins,
our next mayor.

[Dominic Carter] And Dave
Dinkins was the Manhattan
borough president,

looking to become the first
Black mayor of New York City.

- Good luck.
- [David Dinkins] Thank you.

[Carter] Dave Dinkins wasn't
really known to have
an outgoing personality.

I think that I have
the capacity to bring
people together.

Koch was overbearing
with personality.

There are people who think
I'm ascorbic and sarcastic,

and, uh, too New Yorkish.

I'm proud to be New Yorkish.

[cheering]

And political wisdom
said that Koch
would defeat...

...Dave Dinkins.

Mr. Giuliani, with all
the candidates running
for mayor,

do you consider Ed Koch
your principal opponent?

Sure, absolutely.

Ed Koch is the mayor,
he's been elected, uh,
a number of times.

Uh, he was a congressman
before that.

He's the toughest opponent,
and he's the, uh,
person to beat.

[reporter] Koch says
he is still the man
for the job.

When I look at some
of these people
who are running,

I don't think
they can hack it.

It was my cases that led to...

...the revelation of Ed Koch
having turned this city over

to a bunch
of political crooks.

Rudy's...

...affect, was this
working class, aggrieved,

pissed off white dude.

And there's a big demo
out there

for working class
aggrieved, pissed
off white dude,

Q.E.D, Trump and the last,

you know, seven years
of our American
political hell.

In '89,

uh, Ed Koch had been
the mayor for going
on 12 years.

The city was dealing
with high crime,

and there was a blame game
of hostilities.

"It's their fault.
It's their fault."

But you have them--

In the United States,
there's no reason
to walk around...

It was, I believe,
the most racially
polarized year

in the history of the city.

In most big cities,

with a large Black
and Latino population and...

...substantial
white population,
there's racial tension.

Koch has to go!

[crowd clamoring]

[Segarra]
And it was happening
in New York.

The tension was
very, very high.

And you could feel it,
I mean, you could cut it like,
you know, butter.

You had the rape
in Central Park,

and the false arrest
of Black teenagers.

In New York City
this morning, a jogger
is fighting for her life

after a brutal attack
in Central Park.

Five suspects were arrested
outside the park

on West 102nd street
for these assaults.

[Dyja]
The police bring in five kids,

who are basically coerced
into confessions.

They were not responsible,
someone else stepped forward
and confessed.

But at the time, it was jumped
on by a vast majority
of New Yorkers,

that this was an example
of... of super predators.

And I personally hope
they really nail those guys.

There's a tremendous
lack of respect,

especially for authority figures,

and they really do
whatever they want.

The Central Park Five case
was a racial as race gets.

The narrative was simple.

Out of control, Black crime.

[reporter] Billionaire
developer, Donald Trump,
has entered the fray,

with full page ads
in New York's
major newspapers.

[Rev. Al Sharpton]
Donald Trump bought ads
in newspapers,

calling for the death penalty
on these five young men.

I don't know what crime
and fighting crime
has to do with racism.

I'm very much in favor
of the death penalty.

[Rev. Sharpton]
And you had a mayor,

that played between
the divisions.

Their mother's say,
"But he's a good boy!

He never did anything!"

Don't you believe it.

A big part of Giuliani's plan
was peeling off
30% of the Black vote.

Because a lot of Black
New Yorkers
loathed Ed Koch.

Oh, man, Koch,
he's told me so many lies.

The mayor for the rich...

...not for the poor.

In terms of administration,
in terms of business,

I think he's been terrific.

But in racial relations
he's been very, very,
very sad.

[chanting] Justice!

Justice for Yusef!

And then there was the murder
of this Black kid,

Yusef Hawkins.

[Rev. Sharpton]
Young man gets off
a train

in the Bensonhurst
section of Brooklyn.

He was going with some friends
that wanted to go look
at a used car.

And a crowd gets around
him and says, "We don't allow
the N's around here."

And they surround him
and they kill him.

A clear racial murder.

And Ed Koch, immediately says,

"Wait a minute,
don't prejudge."
Prejudge?

They said, "Well,
we don't know
if it was race.

Maybe it was a guy
mad about his girlfriend."

So I say, "Okay,
you don't know if it's race.

We're gonna come out
here and march."

'Cause I want to make
it clear to the nation,

this was about race.

[reporter] Over the weekend,
civil rights leaders marched
through Bensonhurst,

the all white neighborhood
where Hawkins was killed.

They wanted to show
they could go anywhere.

But they met pure hatred
along the route.

[women] Go home!

- [woman] Niggers.
- Tell them to go home.

Go back to east New York
where they came from.

[chanting] Yusef!

Boo!

[Rev. Sharpton] There might
have been 1,000 people
on both sides of the street.

"N's go home, N's go home!"

[chanting] Yusef!

You stupid bigots!

That's right! That's right!

- That's right!
- [man] Leave me alone!

[man 2] That's right!

We were walking
and they were following us,
a group...

...with signs, with a...
you know, a monkey,
a watermelon.

The N word was used.

And when we got
to, uh, the flatbed truck...

...well I said to Dave,
I said, "Dave, you know this
is gonna be volatile here."

He said, "Don't worry,
I got this."

He said to me, "I got this."

We went on... on the flatbed
truck and the first words
out of his mouth...

I mean, he pointed to them.

He said, "I'm gonna
be your mayor too."

[Carter] As soon as Yusef
Hawkins dies,

it becomes the lead issue
in the race for mayor.

Today, the healing has begun.

And New York
is coming together.

It is wrong, uh,
to refer,

uh, to Bensonhurst
as, uh, Johannesburg,

or, uh, uh,
as, uh, Selma, uh, Alabama.

It's just not comparable,
it's unfair.

What we need are people
who are going to bring
people together,

and not try to use this
in a subtle
or not so subtle way

to try and gain votes.

So my advice to the mayor
is, for once in your life,
keep your mouth shut, Ed.

[man] We feel it's justified.

There's something
that we're not teaching...

[cheering]

We went to the funeral
as did Ed Koch,

as did the other
mayoral candidates.

[crowd booing]

[reporter] New York's
governor and mayor,
both white,

were booed when they came
to pay respects.

[Segarra]
There's a great deal
of tension in the air.

These thousand people
they're waiting for...

...service to start.

[Rev. Sharpton]
I remember when I gave
the eulogy that day...

...for Yusef Hawkins.

The three major candidates
were seated in the audience,

mayor Ed Koch,

David Dinkins,
and the Republican candidate,
Rudy Giuliani was there.

And I wanted to challenge
them not to do a ceremonial
symbolic drive-by,

but to really deal
with what would cause

people to feel they have
the right...

...to kill somebody
because of the color
of their skin.

[boy] I'm scared.

You know, I can't walk
in the streets no more

because I... I might
get shot now.

He's scared,
and I am distressed.

I am in terror.

I know we had something
that they took from us.

And it is time
to leave us alone.

[Perkins] Ed Koch snuck out,
went down the fire escape,

because he was afraid
of being confronted
by the crowd as he left.

Yusef Hawkins becomes a stain

on the administration
of Ed Koch.

And catapults Dave Dinkins,

to win the democratic primary.

In New York City,
democratic voters

have turned three-term
mayor Ed Koch
into a lame duck.

Instead, they've chosen
David Dinkins.

You, the people of New York,
made history today.

[reporter] His republican
opponent in November

will be former US
attorney Rudolph Giuliani.

The entire campaign
was predicated on the idea

that we'd be running
against Koch.

Instead, to our surprise,
we're running against
a man

who's potentially
gonna be the first
Black mayor of New York,

an historic event.

We are in heaven now!

We have made history!

Rudy had been campaigning
in a different direction

up until the moment
it became clear he was
gonna face David Dinkins.

And then he sort of executed,
in some ways, a 180.

Racial issues have become
a big part of the race
for mayor.

[male reporter] A full page
advertisement Giuliani
took in a Jewish weekly

was attacked by the American
Jewish Committee as

"an ill-disguised
appeal for prejudice."

[male reporter 2]
Does the ad represent
a sleazy appeal

by Giuliani's supporters

to the prejudiced fears
of some voters?

I think the ad
is quite appropriate,
it is quite fair.

It's calculated, obviously,
to, uh...

...prey upon the fear
of the Jewish community.

[man] You're gonna be
accused of, uh,

- going lowball
with this campaign, uh.
- [laughs]

Oh, oh, come on now!

I love Giuliani,
no more drugs
in New York City.

Beautiful.

- No more crime. No more crime!
- Hey!

Rudy Giuliani,
who can also read
the numbers,

starts migrating
in the direction

of what can help him win,
as any good politician
would do.

The race starts
to take on kind
of an ugly tone.

[man] New York City, 1989.

All this going on.

[Louis] And all
of a sudden, there's a kind
of a snarl and a sneer.

There's a sense that,
like, everything's wrong
in the city,

and we have to get
"those people" out of there.

[man] When asked
how he'd deal
with the deficit...

...David Dinkins said, quote...

[announcer]

To Rudy Giuliani, it's clear.

The last two weeks,

he went absolutely
as hard as he could

after David Dinkins.

Well, we're in the final
stretch of the mayoral race
in New York.

The mudslinging seems
to get worse by the day.

[reporter] Giuliani is trying
to make Dinkins the issue.

Dinkins is accusing
Giuliani of gutter politics.

David Dinkins is not prepared
to be mayor of this city!

[crowd chanting indistinctly]

Out of politics
in the big apple,

a final flurry
of campaigning there.

Polls show Dinkins ahead
by about 14 points.

[reporter 2] There was a big
voter turnout,

one estimate said 60%.

The city's 3.2 million
registered voters
cast ballots.

[Rev. Sharpton]
The night of the election...

...I felt that we
had a chance,

but I kept telling myself,

"Don't build yourself
up for a disappointment.

Let yourself accept
that we ran the best race
we've seen...

...for mayor."

And then we won.

And it was very close...

...but we won.

[anchor] New York City tonight

has the first Black mayor
in its history.

The race to succeed flamboyant
three-term mayor Ed Koch

was the most contested
and contentious in 20 years.

This year, voters rejected
the calls to fear and spoke
with voices of hope.

[Segarra] History was made.

He's now the mayor
for the city of New York.

Joy in the streets
of Harlem, Bed-Stuy.

We were getting calls
from, um, doctors
and nurses in hospitals...

...saying that, uh,

you know, the patients,
the Black patients

in... in the hospitals
are going bananas.

[cheering]

[Louis]
You know, politicians
try and win races,

those races change them.

At a minimum, I think, uh,
Rudy changed from the public
figure he had been

into somebody who was...

...a little bit meaner,

a little bit more divisive.

[cheering]

[Louis]
There comes a moment
in a lot of campaigns,

when the losing candidate,
especially if he or she

wants to have a future
in politics,

has to give
a concession speech.

[crowd clamoring]

Thank you!

[Louis]
The boisterious crowd
that he had whipped up,

who had probably made
a couple of trips to the bar
at that point,

would not be quieted.

I've just spoken
to mayor elect,
David Dinkins.

[crowd booing]

No! No!

No! No.

And were not at all
in sync with what
Rudy wanted to do.

Quiet!

[screams] Quiet!

[man] He screamed
at the top of his lungs,
it was amazing.

And it came across
as strident
and sort of off key.

Please be quiet
and listen to me.

This is a situation where
he wasn't able to control
his environment.

And, uh, he didn't like it.

It's very important
for the future our own city

that we all come together,

and I want you
to show that spirit.

[yelling] Now do it!

[Stewart] I believe the...
the seeds of the Rudy
that we see now

were always there.

What I didn't recognize

as other aspects of his
career fell away...

...how prominent
they would become.

Rudy told Jack Newfield,

the famous journalist,

after the 1989 election

that the election
was stolen from him.

Were you surprised?

Was... Was I surprised by it?

[Jack Newfield]
Surprised at how close
it came at the end.

Could you have predicted
it in a sealed envelope?

I... No, I don't think so.

I think, uh...

I thought we were
either gonna win it
by a very little bit,

or lose it by eight
or ten points.

Having never been
through it before,

I didn't know
which to believe,

the polls or the enthusiasm
of the people.

It didn't get a lot
of attention.

And so it didn't really
spring forward until...

...the Trump era.

We cannot allow these crooks

to steal an election
from the American people.

When I ran for mayor,
of New York City,
uh, the first time,

uh, some people voted
eight or ten times.

And it really struck me,

because it was something
that Giuliani didn't carry on
a lot about at the time.

He may have said it,
here and there...

...but it's not something
he made a big issue.

It did not define him in 1989.

I think he still had
enough internal discipline...

...connection
to the real world,

whatever you wanna call it,

that he didn't define himself
as a person who had
an election stolen from him.

From now one, I will believe
the people, not the wisdom
of the pollsters.

[laughs]

Every step in his career
was natural...

...from what had
happened before.

I don't think there was
ever a time,

when I thought "Oh, wow,
Rudy is now finished."

I never thought that,
even when he lost.

[Carter] From that night...

Giuliani started
his second campaign

for the next four years.

People say this can't
be done, screw them.

"I'm gonna show you
that it can."

There is this tight sense
of it's us against the world,

let's show the world
what assholes they are.

Those have always
been his instincts.

And look, god,
talk about longevity
in American politics.

The guy is, like,
fucking amazing.

[Giuliani] The reason
the morale

of the police department
is so low is David Dinkins!

[crowd cheering]

They all wanted to send
a message.

Bull[bleep].

Now is the time
to take our city back...

...from the violent
criminals on the street

The first time
he was mayor Rudy,
now he's King Giuliani.

Well, you know,
you get to the point
where it gets ridiculous.

He just doesn't have it in him

to ever admit he's wrong.