A Staten Island, New York, man was arrested Sunday after slapping Rudy Giuliani on the back at a grocery store campaign event for his son Andrew Giuliani’s gubernatorial run.
Police arrested the man, whom witnesses described as a store worker who had approached the former New York City mayor and said, “What’s up, scumbag?” before slapping him on the back.
Andrew Giuliani, a former Trump administration adviser and Republican candidate for governor of New York, told the New York Post his father was fine after the assault and blamed the Staten Island incident on “left-wing” liberals.
“It’s a sad day when New Yorkers’ greatest crime fighter, ‘America’s Mayor,’ is attacked,” Andrew Giuliani said. “I blame the left wing for encouraging violence. This is crazy.”
Police were investigating the incident and it wasn’t certain what charges the 39-year-old suspect could face.
Store surveillance footage of the incident, however, raised more questions about the severity of the attack.
Rudy Giuliani, whose New York law license was suspended last year for making “demonstrably false and misleading” statements while representing Donald Trump in his unsuccessful effort to challenge the 2020 election, told The New York Times that the suspect made reference to the Supreme Court’s move to overturn of Roe v. Wade.
“The one thing he said that was political was, ‘You’re going to kill women, you’re going to kill women,’” Giuliani told the Times.
“My back hurts,” Giuliani told the Times, “but otherwise I’m able to walk and stuff like that. He almost knocked me down. Thank God, for a 78-year-old, I am in pretty good shape.”
Giuliani is facing potential legal issues over his legal work on behalf of Trump seeking to overturn the 2020 presidential election. He has been prominently featured as part of the recent congressional hearings into Jan. 6, and most notably made headlines after testimony indicated he was drunk on election night, during which he was acting as an adviser to Trump.
Giuliani disputed the testimony, saying in a tweet he only had been drinking soda.
In a new poll from John Zogby Strategies, Andrew Giuliani was trailing U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin of Long Island in the Republican race to challenge Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul. Zeldin led Giuliani 34.5% to 28%, while former Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino had 16% and investor Harry Wilson had 14%.
