A Staten Island grocery store worker was arrested Sunday after hitting Rudolph W. Giuliani on the back while the former mayor was campaigning on behalf of his son, a Republican candidate for governor, according to police and Mr. Giuliani.
In a short interview, Mr. Giuliani that he was walking with trailers through a ShopRite supermarket in the Charleston neighborhood when the employee belittled him, hit him on the back, and then clearly referred to abortion.
“All he said was political was ‘you’re going to kill women, you’re going to kill women,'” said Mr Giuliani, who said he understood the comment was about the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. . Wade on Friday.
The initial police report made no mention of abortion, but said an unnamed 39-year-old man had punched Mr Giuliani in the middle of the back as he said, “What is it, motherfucker?”
The man has been arrested. Police were still investigating and it was not immediately clear what charges the man might face.
A surveillance video of the incident, later published by The New York Post, shows a person who appears to be a ShopRite employee approaching Mr. Giuliani, briefly taking an open hand behind his back, stopping to approach the former mayor. speak and move on. Mr. Giuliani looks shocked, but doesn’t seem physically shocked.
The supermarket chain said in a statement that it was aware of the incident and that the company had “zero tolerance for aggression towards anyone”.
Mr. Giuliani, a Republican who most recently served as Donald J. Trump’s personal attorney, has had a long and conflicting relationship with abortion rights—first against them, then supporting them, then turning back.
Earlier Sunday, he said on his radio show that he had gone through “a torturous, intellectual, emotional and moral situation with abortion” before finally concluding that he was against it.
Giuliani is under intense scrutiny for his role in Mr Trump’s attempts to reverse the results of the 2020 election, which culminated in a deadly riot in the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. In the interview, he denounced political violence .
“This has to stop. This is going to be ridiculous,” he said later on Sunday afternoon. “I’ve been in politics for 50 years, I’ve never been attacked in this way.”
Mr Giuliani said he had red marks on his back but was not bleeding and had remained on his legs after being beaten. He planned to hand out flyers to Andrew Giuliani ahead of Tuesday’s Republican primary for governor. The younger Mr Giuliani was not present.
“My back hurts, but I can walk and things like that,” said the former mayor. “He almost knocked me down. Thank goodness for a 78 year old, I’m in pretty good shape.”
Andrew Giuliani, the son of the former mayor, in a statement called the incident an “attack” and said he and his father “would not be intimidated by left-wing attacks.”
Mr Giuliani said the man in question should be charged on the same principle that animates “my broken windows theory” of police work.
“If you don’t stop it at this stage, it will only get worse and worse and worse,” he said.
Asia Paybarah† Jesse McKinley and Dana Rubinstein reporting contributed.