Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani says Mayor Bill de Blasio needs to apologize to the NYPD to mend fences with police, and also refused to back down on his comments that President Barack Obama has engaged in anti-police propaganda.
Giuliani appeared Sunday on CBS'
"Face the Nation," where he was challenged by guest host Major Garrett.
Giuliani said on "Fox News Sunday" on Dec. 21, "We’ve had four months of propaganda, starting with the president, that everybody should hate the police."
Garrett pointed out that the
Washington Post Fact Checker gave that claim four Pinocchios, adding that he covers Obama "every single day," and, "I've never detected anything that comes along the line of propaganda, urging the country to hate police."
Giuliani said Garrett and the Post missed an important point: Al Sharpton's presence next to Obama when discussing the police. Those actions speak volumes, the former mayor said.
"If you would like to have a poster boy for hating the police it's Al Sharpton," Giuliani said. "You make Al Sharpton a close adviser, you're gonna turn the police in America against you. You're gonna tell the police in America: We don't understand you."
Giuliani had his own run-ins with Sharpton during his days as mayor, and has said he refused to legitimize him by bringing him to the table.
"You put Al Sharpton next to you, you just told everyone, I'm against the police," he told Garrett.
Giuliani compared the Obama-Sharpton relationship to his days as a U.S. attorney fighting the mafia.
If "I had Joe Colombo sitting next to me, you would say I was a big hypocrite, wouldn't you?" he asked.
Giuliani said Obama sends representatives to the funerals of people killed during the commission of crimes, but has not made any strong comments about the killings of NYPD officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu on December 20 by a man who vowed on social media to exact revenge on police for the death of Eric Garner during an arrest in Staten Island.
While police and firefighters did have issues with Giuliani for not giving them raises during his first two years in office, the former mayor disputed Garrett's assertion that police had turned their backs on him as they literally have done twice to de Blasio since the killings of Ramos and Liu.
Giuliani said it was wrong for officers to take the action against de Blasio and also wrong for the police union head Pat Lynch to blame the mayor for the officers' deaths.
But he said de Blasio should apologize to the NYPD for giving the public impression that he sided with protesters over police during recent protests over the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, both unarmed black men, at the hands of police officers.
"I think he'd get this over with if he did it," Giuliani said.
"The mayor is not in any way to be treated with people turning their backs," Giuliani said. "Doesn't matter if you like the mayor or you don't like the mayor. You have to respect the mayor's position.
"I don't support that. But I do believe Mayor de Blasio should apologize to the New York City Department. I said it day one, and I think he'd get this over with if he did it."
"Mayor de Blasio, please say you're sorry to them for having created a false impression of them... Say you're sorry," he said.
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