Yes, Rudy Giuliani made a Game of Thrones reference to the crowd that stormed the Capitol

Right before a crowd of insurrections stormed the Capitol building last week, Rudy Giuliani told them, “let’s have trial by combat.” And yes, he was referencing Game of Thrones.

Last week, a mob of insurrectionists stormed the United States Capitol Building in an attempt to stop the United States Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election, which President Donald Trump lost to Joe Biden by over 7 million votes, which translated to a loss of 74 electoral votes. Nevertheless, Trump and his associates had been baselessly maintaining for months that he actually won the election, and that in order to overturn the results, his followers would need to “fight like hell.”

“You’ll never take back our country with weakness,” Trump said before the attack while addressing the crowd that would soon storm the Capitol, an act that resulted in the deaths of five people including a capitol police officer. “You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.”

Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s lawyer, also spoke at that rally. And as he was talking about those baseless claims of election fraud, he had to go and bring Game of Thrones into this. “If we are wrong, we will be made fools of, but if we’re right, a lot of them will go to jail,” he said. “So let’s have trial by combat.”

If you’re a Game of Thrones fan, the phrase “trial by combat” may trigger memories of the fight between Oberyn “the Viper” Martell and Gregor “the Mountain” Clegane, fought to determine the fate of Tyrion Lannister, who had been falsely accused of killing King Joffrey Baratheon. Speaking to reporter Brett Samuels of The Hill, Giuliani admitted that he was indeed referring to this moment. “I was referencing the kind of trial that took place for Tyrion in that very famous documentary about fictitious medieval England,” Giuliani said, making what I’m going to assume is a joke. “When Tyrion, who is a very small man, is accused of murder. He didn’t commit murder, he can’t defend himself, and he hires a champion to defend him.”

So who is Tyrion in this scenario? Best not ask.

“It incited no violent response from the crowd,” Giuliani continued. “None. The crowd didn’t jump up saying, ‘Lock him up, throw him to jail, go to hell.’ I’ve had speeches where people jump up and say, ‘lock him up.’ It was not an emotional — it was not an emotion-inspiring part of the speech.”

Giuliani also maintained that the election was fraudulent and that the president bore “no responsibility” for the Capitol insurrection, which to me is like claiming you didn’t steal cookies from the cookie jar while literally shoving pilfered cookies into your face, but mileage may vary.

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