Group Has to Apologize Following Giuliani Speech

It appears Rudy Giuliani didn't read the room. The New York Observer reports the Commercial Finance Association was forced to apologize to its members after a speech by the former New York City mayor at its 40 Under 40 dinner went a bit off the rails. In an email Monday, the financial services trade group acknowledged that Giuliani, who was supposed to talk about leadership, "veered sharply off course" and apologized for his "unscripted personal opinions." While what Giuliani said during the dinner Sept. 22 at the Waldorf Astoria hasn't been made public, one attendee tells the Observer that the audience was "shocked" and started complaining immediately afterward.

"Rudy talked about immigration and made a really, really inappropriate comment about the quote-unquote Mexicans in the kitchen at the Waldorf,” the attendee says. “It was bad. You could hear a pin drop. I think he was looking for applause.” A second attendee confirmed that was about the gist of it, which may explain why the apology from the CFA specifically notes that it "abhors discrimination of any kind." TPM believes Giuliani's "presumably...racist" misstep is the result of getting used to what works in front of Trump crowds and forgetting that it doesn't play with the "Wall Street richies" in Manhattan. Giuliani has since been removed as keynote speaker for the upcoming New York National Deal Making Conference, Politico reports. (More Rudy Giuliani stories.)