Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani told Newsmax on Friday that current Mayor Eric Adams is a "worse mayor" than Bill de Blasio, and that crime in the city has risen 40% since Adams took office.
"This has been happening day after day in our city," Giuliani said on "Rob Schmitt Tonight." "It's the reason that crime is up 40% in New York. The press has like a love affair with Adams, but he's actually a worse mayor than [former Mayor Bill] de Blasio."
Giuliani said that crime continues to rise in New York City despite Adams' experience in law enforcement as an ex-New York Police Department officer.
District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his office are under fire for charging a 61-year-old bodega worker with murder and criminal possession of a weapon in the stabbing of a man during a dispute at the store.
According to the New York Post, the worker, identified as Jose Alba, grabbed a knife after Austin Simon, 35, charged behind the counter and started a fight over Alba refusing a bag of potato chips to a customer who did not have enough cash for the purchase.
The report said the customer, a woman, left the store and summoned Simon, who then entered the bodega to confront Alba behind the counter, eventually grabbing him and pushing him into a shelf.
A video of the encounter shows part of the fight where Alba retrieved a knife and allegedly stabbed Simon in the chest and neck during the struggle.
Simon was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Police arrested Alba, charging him with second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon.
He was initially jailed at Riker's Island in lieu of $250,000 bail, but was released Thursday on $50,000 bail, NBC 4 New York reported.
Giuliani called the charges against Alba "pitiful," but that it was "predictable" after Bragg said he was scaling back prosecutions in the city shortly after taking office.
"From the moment he wrote that letter on Jan. 1 or Jan. 2 where he disavowed his oath of office to prosecute crimes, and listed whole categories of crimes, including armed robbery and resisting arrest, which is like an assault on the police," Giuliani said.
Adams ''is doing everything wrong. He is charming them. He's wearing very expensive jewelry, but he's lying completely. The cops completely despise him, and he is completely owned by Bragg."
The former mayor said that if he were in Adams' shoes, he would go to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and demand Bragg be removed from office and threaten to withhold political support for her if she refuses.
"I would go see the governor," he said, "who desperately needs Adams' support to get elected. And I [would] tell her, 'You don't have my support unless you remove him.' The governor of the state of New York, right in the Constitution of the state, has the power to remove a district attorney that doesn't prosecute the law."
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