Mother Jones; Robin Rayne/ZUMA; Matt Rourke/AP
Last Friday, my colleague Stephanie Mencimer had the distinct honor—or misfortune—of witnessing Rudy Giuliani’s apparent attempt to convince the Christian right to help him amid his dire financial troubles. That effort saw Giuliani airing crude, conspiratorial rhetoric before the faithful which at one point, saw Giuliani calling Fani Willis, the Fulton County district attorney in Donald Trump’s Georgia case, a “ho.”
Now Willis is responding, condemning the conservative critics who have relentlessly targeted her since she took on Trump’s Georgia election interference case. While speaking to leaders of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Georgia, Willis appeared to single out the former New York City mayor’s denigrating remarks. She declined to call out Giuliani by name, but the subject of her remarks was evident.
“I’ve lived the experience of a Black woman who is attacked and over-sexualized,” she said. “See, I’m so tired of hearing these idiots call my name as ‘Fanny’ in a way to attempt to humiliate me. Because, like silly schoolboys, the name reminds them of a woman’s rear, of her behind.”
Last month, in an interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, Willis described having to leave her home and hire bodyguards due to the threats of violence against her. But it was Giuliani’s recent comments that have catapulted Willis’s ongoing harassment back into the national spotlight.
“I’m not calling her ‘FAAAHni,’” he said last week, mocking the pronunciation of Willis’ name. “I could drop the ‘ho’ part if she’d just quit and go away, but to me, if you spell your name F-A-N-I, your name is Fanny.”
As Stephanie wrote, Trump’s former lawyer seems hellbent on turning to the Christian nationalists to pay for his growing pile of legal fees. But will calling Willis a “ho” be enough to get that cash? Mencimer writes:
Rather than getting a real job, Giuliani seems intent on milking the Christian faithful. But even they may have had enough of the man who brought the country the Four Seasons Total Landscaping press conference after the 2020 election. By Wednesday night, the GiveSendGo had only raised a total of $61,000. In the end, Giuliani may have to finally hit up the one other person most responsible for his current financial misery: Donald J. Trump.
