NYTimes | Mr. Giuliani has plainly not mellowed in his prosperity. Representative
Peter T. King, a Long Island Republican who has known him for decades,
said the former mayor was “very personally angry” in his remarks, on
and off the stage at the fund-raising event on Wednesday evening.
“This is as emotional as I’ve seen him. He was in some ways more emotional than he was after 9/11,” said Mr. King, who spoke alongside Mr. Giuliani at a private “super PAC” fund-raising event at the Women’s National Republican Club in Manhattan.
John A. Catsimatidis, the billionaire grocery store magnate, attended the same fund-raiser and, on a whim, invited Mr. Giuliani to join him at a meet-and-greet for Mr. Walker with members of the New York financial elite. Mr. Catsimatidis, a frequent Republican donor, lamented that Mr. Giuliani’s unplanned speech became an enveloping spectacle.
“The focus of the event should not have been that,” Mr. Catsimatidis said, adding: “Look, Rudy is Rudy. He’s not going to run for anything himself. Maybe he wanted to get it off his chest.”
To some in Republican politics, Mr. Giuliani’s public eruption looks like the product of slack political instincts, the shoot-from-the-lip behavior of a former champion who has lost self-awareness with each year removed from office. The former mayor’s political career has sloped precipitously downward since his ill-fated 2008 campaign; while he remains an occasional fund-raising attraction, his time as a national Republican leader is past.
For all the criticism Mr. Giuliani’s comments attracted from Democrats and members of the Republican establishment, there are quarters of the right where his remarks struck a chord. The talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh crowed about “getting texts praising Rudy to the rooftops.”
Joe M. Allbaugh, a former Giuliani adviser who led the Federal Emergency Management Agency during the World Trade Center attacks, said he applauded Mr. Giuliani’s candor.
“He represents a lot of Americans who are scratching their heads wondering why our president — the president of the United States — doesn’t defend our culture the way he defends everybody else’s culture,” Mr. Allbaugh said.
“This is as emotional as I’ve seen him. He was in some ways more emotional than he was after 9/11,” said Mr. King, who spoke alongside Mr. Giuliani at a private “super PAC” fund-raising event at the Women’s National Republican Club in Manhattan.
John A. Catsimatidis, the billionaire grocery store magnate, attended the same fund-raiser and, on a whim, invited Mr. Giuliani to join him at a meet-and-greet for Mr. Walker with members of the New York financial elite. Mr. Catsimatidis, a frequent Republican donor, lamented that Mr. Giuliani’s unplanned speech became an enveloping spectacle.
“The focus of the event should not have been that,” Mr. Catsimatidis said, adding: “Look, Rudy is Rudy. He’s not going to run for anything himself. Maybe he wanted to get it off his chest.”
To some in Republican politics, Mr. Giuliani’s public eruption looks like the product of slack political instincts, the shoot-from-the-lip behavior of a former champion who has lost self-awareness with each year removed from office. The former mayor’s political career has sloped precipitously downward since his ill-fated 2008 campaign; while he remains an occasional fund-raising attraction, his time as a national Republican leader is past.
For all the criticism Mr. Giuliani’s comments attracted from Democrats and members of the Republican establishment, there are quarters of the right where his remarks struck a chord. The talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh crowed about “getting texts praising Rudy to the rooftops.”
Joe M. Allbaugh, a former Giuliani adviser who led the Federal Emergency Management Agency during the World Trade Center attacks, said he applauded Mr. Giuliani’s candor.
“He represents a lot of Americans who are scratching their heads wondering why our president — the president of the United States — doesn’t defend our culture the way he defends everybody else’s culture,” Mr. Allbaugh said.
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