Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani blames the progressive movement for much of the destruction the country is witnessing in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis. He said liberal government leaders should be held accountable for riots and looting in cities across the U.S. since they are all led by Democrats.
Giuliani shared his critical observations of the Minneapolis Police Department on Fox News’ “America’s News HQ,” where he also monitored live coverage of protests in his hometown.
“This is a legitimate bad situation that has to be remedied and it’s the fault of the police that this happened,” Giuliani said. “Not just for one officer — that’s a poorly trained police department. That’s a poorly managed police department.”
The former mayor continued by also criticizing liberal city and state leaders.
“Cities run — and I’m sorry to get political — cities run by progressives don’t know how to police. I’m sorry,” Giuliani said. “Thirty cities went up last night, I went and looked at every one of them. Every one of them has a progressive Democratic mayor.”
A cell phone video that went viral last week showed Floyd lying in the street with his head turned to the side as Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin has his knee pressed to the back of Floyd’s neck for several minutes.
“Thirty cities went up last night, I went and looked at every one of them. Every one of them has a progressive Democratic mayor.”
– Rudy Giuliani
Floyd is seen gasping for air and begging Chauvin to stop as bystanders are heard shouting at Chauvin to take his knee off Floyd’s neck.
Floyd would eventually die in police custody.
Chauvin was immediately fired and has since been arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. Three additional officers were terminated and charges appear to be pending, according to cues from prosecutors.
“The shame of this is nobody disagrees. Nobody white, black or in-between disagrees. What happened to Mr. Floyd is an outrage,” Giuliani told anchor Harris Faulkner. “The shame of it, Harris, this is something that could have united us.”
Giuliani said he usually doesn’t prejudge police cases but he couldn’t “not react” to Chauvin’s actions recorded on the video, calling them “indescribable,” Fox News reported.
Giuliani added that the riots across the U.S. were a “desecration” of Floyd’s memory.