Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani ripped into President Obama during a private dinner for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker on Wednesday, charging that Obama doesn't love America and castigating the president's recent remarks on religious extremism.
“I do not believe, and I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I do not believe that the president loves America,” Giuliani said in remarks reported by Politico. “He doesn’t love you. And he doesn’t love me. He wasn’t brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up through love of this country.”
The former mayor was one of about 60 corporate chieftains, conservative media personalities, and Republican figures on hand for the dinner at the 21 Club. Walker, a likely 2016 presidential candidate, sat feet away from Giuliani as he embarked on his anti-Obama tirade.
“What country has left so many young men and women dead abroad to save other countries without taking land?" Giuliani asked. "This is not the colonial empire that somehow he has in his hand. I’ve never felt that from him. I felt that from W. I felt that from Clinton. I felt that from every American president, including ones I disagreed with, including Carter. I don’t feel that from President Obama.”
Referring to anti-Jewish riots in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn early in his mayoralty, Giuliani criticized the president's recent remarks before the National Prayer Breakfast, where Obama noted that brutality and violence have hardly been the exclusive province of any one religion.
“I thought the Crown Heights riots were a pogrom because you’re going out trying to kill Jews,” Giuliani said. “Why is this man incapable of saying that? You’ve got to be able to criticize Islam for the parts of Islam that are wrong. You criticize Christianity for the part of Christianity that is wrong. I’m not sure how wrong the Crusades are. The Crusades were kind of an equal battle between two groups of barbarians. The Muslims and the crusading barbarians. What the hell? What’s wrong with this man that he can’t stand up and say there’s a part of Islam that’s sick?”
Giuliani also teased a potential Walker endorsement during his remarks.
“[W]ith all our flaws we’re the most exceptional country in the world. I’m looking for a presidential candidate who can express that, do that and carry it out," he said. “And if it’s you Scott, I’ll endorse you. And if it’s somebody else, I’ll support somebody else.”
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