[tense music] - the rumors about rudy and cristyne began to bubble up fairly early on. cristyne lategano, at that time, was a relatively inexperienced republican operative, and in fairly short order became the communications director she became such a gatekeeper to all things rudy. everything had to go through her, which was a very big problem within the administration and within rudy s inner circle. - nobody could figure it out except to assume that they had more than a professional relationship. this whispering campaign began. - it s untrue, and unfair, and, as i said before, vicious. - ultimately, peter powers,
- if you think rudy giuliani is about being a politician, you don t understand him. he is a fascinating, engaging, and sometimes frustrating individual. he was the most dimensional person that i ever worked for, with the single greatest highs of my lifetime, a few lows that disappoint his allies and friends. - to understand rudy, you really understand that at the core, he s an angry man and always was. and anger can be directed in a positive way or a negative way. - rudy always felt like he was going to win. so did i. we knew that rudy had the appropriate skills and experience that he should be elected mayor of the city. - between 1989 when he lost and 1993, he gave himself an education in how to be a candidate and how to be a mayor. - we had a research team make a vulnerability study sort of a road map to defend him.
- in many ways, tactically, rudy was donald trump before donald trump was donald trump. - you say that she set up her own - yeah, i ve answered enough questions about. you know, you get to the point where it gets ridiculous. - he discovered and perfected the political art of maintaining really hostile relationships with the press and enjoying hostile relationships with the press. - then you can all spin it 5,000 different ways. - giuliani is really trump-like, i think, in his willingness to believe that all publicity is good publicity. - i think both of them, they kind of kind of peaked in a certain era. - trump at one point tells his campaign manager, every story is a good story about you as long as they don t accuse you of being a pedophile. and it seems that rudy giuliani has the same view of publicity. - he would always have this entourage that was, like, a security detail around him. in that inner circle, there were people that go way back in his life to high school.
[tense music] - the city of new york became the safest big city in america. - as time goes by, the kind of obsession with metrics becomes a problem. - mayor giuliani said, i want those numbers lower. i want them lower and lower. - the strong drop in crime fed the accusation that his police force was too aggressive. - the streets are safer. but the cost was having a police department that started to act as an occupying army. - for rudy, what quality of life meant was quality of white life. - some of the things that i ve done have helped not only the entire city,
everything had to go through her, which was a very big problem within the administration and within rudy s inner circle. - nobody could figure it out except to assume that they had more than a professional relationship. this whispering campaign began. - it s untrue, and unfair, and, as i said before, vicious. - ultimately, peter powers, who was rudy s closest confidante, gave him an ultimatum. he chose cristyne. peter left city hall. many view that as the biggest mistake rudy made. - rudy no longer had a moderating voice to keep him on track. - if one s approach to life is loyalty over competence every time, a few decades go by, and it s not the best recipe for mental health. meanwhile, donna started to disappear during his reelection campaign.