Rudy Giuliani, saying his accusations that President Barack Obama doesn't love America "hit a nerve," continued hammering the president's foreign policy agenda Sunday and calling for a leader who gives the country optimism.
The former New York City mayor, speaking with John Catsimatidis on 970 AM's "
The Cats Roundtable" program, told the grocery billionaire and key Republican donor that he's made similar comments before but this time it hit hard.
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"I said it maybe 30 times before but somehow this time it hit a nerve, maybe because the president is on such defense for his unwillingness to face Islamic terrorism," Giuliani told Catsimatidis. "We need a American president more like Ronald Reagan who gave us a sense of optimism."
Giuliani has been
under fire since Wednesday, when he attended a private dinner sponsored by Catsimatidis for Republican Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a potential 2016 GOP presidential candidate.
At the dinner, Giuliani commented that the president "doesn't love you. He doesn't love me. He wasn't brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up: to love this country."
By Friday, as the outcry arose about Giuliani's comment, including claims by some that it was racially motivated, he told reporters that Obama was brought up in a white family, but with communist and socialist values, and by Saturday, he told CNN that his secretary had fielded some
death threats over his comments.
On Sunday's show, though, the former mayor showed no signs of backing down, making further attacks on Obama by claiming that he "turned on Israel," has refused to back the country's Middle East allies against Iran, and further has ruined relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"I want a president who is not embarrassed to say America is the strongest power on Earth and we're going to assert ourselves and I want our enemies to be afraid of our president," said Giuliani. "That's the only way we will defeat these people.
"We’re not going to defeat with this namby pamby stuff about not being able to say 'Islamic terrorists.'"
Catsimatidis acknowledged that Giuliani got a "double take" for his remarks, but still defended his right to say what he did.
"I think everybody is entitled to their own opinion," Catsimatidis said. "I think he just got it off his chest. Maybe that's the way he felt personally. This is a free America, everyone can say what they want."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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