KEEP TALKING, RUDY: Al Sharpton says Giuliani's comments about President Obama only help the Democrats
Al Sharpton rips Giuliani over Obama comments, says 'Rudy needs a hug'
'Rudy, first of all, needs a hug,' Rev. Al Sharpton said at his Harlem headquarters before improbably encouraging Rudy Giuliani, the two-term GOP mayor, to keep jabbering away.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, responding Saturday to Rudy Giuliani’s attacks on President Obama, offered his old nemesis some advice — find somebody to love.
“Rudy, first of all, needs a hug,” Sharpton said at his Harlem headquarters before improbably encouraging the two-term GOP mayor to keep jabbering away.
“The best thing that can happen to the Democrat that succeeds President Obama is for Rudy Giuliani to keep running his mouth,” Sharpton declared.
“Give him all the airtime you can give him because he doesn’t know but one song to sing. He don’t realize it’s 2015. He thinks it’s ’93.”
Wayne Barrett: What Rudy Giuliani knows about love — a response to his 'doesn't love America' critique of Obama
Giuliani, after declaring that Obama did not “love America,” dug himself deeper Friday when he told the Daily News he believes the President was influenced by communism in his childhood.
Republican Giuliani’s pointed attacks on the Democratic President are already affecting the 2016 presidential race, with GOP hopeful Gov. Scott Walker already catching heat over the comments.
“Inexplicably, he sat silent when he was just feet away from Rudy Giuliani the other night and refused to condemn when Rudy Giuliani...directly said that our President doesn’t love America,” said Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
Left, Rev.All Sharpton at NAN this morning speaking about Malcolm X ,who was murdered 50 years ago today; right, Rudy Giuliani visits "Cavuto" On FOX Business Network at FOX Studios on September 23, 2014 in New York City.
MICHAEL SCHWARTZ FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS| ROB KIM/GETTY IMAGES
Rev. Al Sharpton had some harsh words for former mayor Rudy Giuliani, saying that the best thing for any potential Democrat who would succeed Obama is for Giuliani to 'keep running his mouth.'
Wisconsinite Walker, speaking Saturday at a Washington meeting of the nation’s governors, danced around the question.
“You should ask the President what he thinks about America,” said Walker. “I’ve never asked him, so I don’t know.”
In a later interview, Walker refused to say whether he believes Obama is a Christian. “I don’t know,” he told The Washington Post.
Tennessee congressman: Maybe Giuliani thinks Obama loves country 3/5 as much as GOP pals
Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics said Giuliani’s remarks could backfire on the Republicans as the campaign continues.
“Rudy’s comments are red meat — no, filet mignon — for the GOP activist base,” he said. “But Rudy’s patriotic breast-beating hurts with voters who are turned off by invective.
“Rudy has put all the GOP presidential candidates in a tough spot. They can’t win no matter how they respond to his comments.”
De Blasio, DNC Chairwoman Slam Rudy Giuliani's Comments That Obama Doesn't Love America
NY Daily News
Giuliani’s Friday remarks about Obama only fanned the flames.
“The ideas that are troubling me and are leading to this come from Communists with whom he associated since he was 9 years old,” said Giuliani, who mounted an unsuccessful 2008 GOP presidential run.
Pressed on his comments by The News, he refused to apologize for slamming Obama.
“My perception is from his words and his actions that he doesn’t possess the kind of emotion, love for America, that Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton had,” Giuliani said. Sharpton, a Giuliani critic during his two terms as mayor, ripped the former politician as “a fading Republican who will say and do anything for attention.”
He noted that Obama’s grandfather was a World War II veteran, and one of the President’s granduncles helped liberate the Nazi death camp at Buchenwald.
“So his grandfather didn’t raise him to love America?” Sharpton asked rhetorically. The civil rights activist also charged Giuliani with playing the race card in attacking the President.
De Blasio, DNC chairwoman slam Rudy Giuliani's comments that Obama doesn't love America
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Giuliani sparked criticism after saying that Obama didn’t ‘love America,’ and told the Daily News that the President’s ideology has ben influenced by ‘Communists with whom he associated since he was 9 years old.’
“He has built a lot of his career on playing with race codes,” Sharpton said. “That is what he did to David Dinkins.”
Giuliani — who lost to Dinkins in the 1989 mayoral race — triumphed over the incumbent four years later after attending an NYPD police union rally at City Hall that turned ugly.
Dinkins wrote in his memoir that cops were using racial epithets about him, and “Rudy Giuliani was out there all but inciting the police to riot.”
Republican Party insiders were divided on whether Giuliani’s comments would resonate throughout the 2016 presidential race. “No major candidate will want his support,” said one longtime GOP operative. “If Rudy endorses your candidacy, you are then forced to defend his statements. He’s a press secretary’s worst nightmare.”
But a national GOP consultant predicted Giuliani’s words would be forgotten.
“By the time...voters are actually paying attention, they will remember him more for his strong leadership of New York City, especially during the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11,” the consultant said.
We do that, many times, (hopefully) to make sense of it, to explain it or to turn it on its head.
