Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani ignited a firestorm by publicly questioning whether Barack Obama “loves America,” criticizing him for weak leadership against Islamist threats and arguing the president has been more influenced by his communist mentors than by his African-American roots.
Many have sought to dismiss him. The White House press secretary said he “feels sorry” for him. The New York Daily News wrote an editorial calling him a “babble-rouser” who’s grown “sad and sadder.”
But a few, including former Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., have argued the man who captained New York City through the Sept. 11 attacks has a point.
“I’m sure you’ve heard the leftist liberal media slamming Rudy Giuliani for his critical comments about President Obama,” Bachmann wrote in a letter to supporters of MichelePAC, a political action committee she founded to elect constitutional conservative leaders.
“It is certainly understandable why a mayor of the largest city in America, who suffered the worst terror attack in the history of our country, and who was ultimately responsible for managing and dealing with the mass death and chaotic destruction caused by radical Islamic terrorists is so immensely concerned,” Bachmann reasoned. “And with the erroneous and miscalculated lack of leadership from our White House, those concerns are more than justified.
“I share Rudy’s fear and concern,” Bachmann continued. “It is very unlikely that ISIS will simply go away without America leading the effort to stop them. We must identify this enemy for exactly who they are and robustly destroy them. …There is no question in my mind that we must show our patriotic love and devotion for America by demanding safety and security for our citizens.”
Giuliani was thrust into the limelight after telling about 60 conservative business leaders at a private dinner Wednesday night, “I do not believe that the president loves America. He doesn’t love you. He doesn’t love me.”
“The reality is, from all that I can see of this president, all that I’ve heard of him, he apologizes for America, he criticizes America,” Giuliani said.
He accused Obama of not believing in American exceptionalism and noted his early life influences, including communist Frank Marshall Davis.
“I believe his initial approach is to criticize this country and then afterward to say a few nice things about it,” Giuliani said.
As WND has reported, Giuliani has only doubled down on his comments in follow-up interviews since.
“I don’t regret making the statement. I believe it,” Giuliani told CNN. “I don’t know if he loves America.”
“Look, this man was brought up basically in a white family, so whatever he learned or didn’t learn, I attribute this more to the influence of communism and socialism” than to his race, Giuliani told the New York Daily News.
“I don’t (see) this president as being particularly a product of African-American society or something like that. He isn’t,” the former mayor added. “Logically, think about his background. … The ideas that are troubling me and are leading to this come from communists with whom he associated when he was 9 years old.”
Giuliani clarified he was referencing Obama’s grandfather having introduced him to Davis, a member of the Communist Party.
Giuliani also told Fox News’ Megyn Kelly that when Obama finally acknowledges the fact that America’s enemy is “Islamic terrorists,” “then I will applaud the president.”
The Obama White House insists on not describing terrorists as Islamic, claiming the Islamic State, for example, has nothing to do with Islam.
A spokesman for Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal told CNN Giuliani is right on that point.
“Guiliani asked a very important question, which the press has glossed over ¬– it was this – ‘What’s wrong with [Obama] that he can’t stand up and say there’s a part of Islam that’s sick?’” the spokesman said. “The governor believes this is question that needs to be answered.”
“The governor did call [Giuliani], and they did speak,” the spokesman said. “(Jindal) wanted to buck him up because he knows everyone is in a rush to condemn him. The governor acknowledges that not everything that the mayor said was good, but he believes that Guiliani is a great leader and that this rush by the left and the media to condemn and marginalize him is ridiculous.”
The former mayor also got the support of talk-show host and author Mark Levin, who appeared on Sean Hannity’s television program.
“He’s exactly right,” Levin said. “When somebody says they want to fundamentally transform America, they must not love America.”
He continued: “Obama has shown no indication that he loves the Constitution, he never talks about capitalism, he’s always bringing up the past, picking at scabs. Even now he’s a patsy for Islamic terrorism. … Half his speeches are about how terrible America is.”
Levin called Obama “the most preposterous and absurd president … maybe at any time in American history.”
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