Rudy Giuliani calls on Bill de Blasio to apologize to cops
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said current mayor Bill de Blasio owes New York City police an apology for creating "an impression with police that he was on the side of the protesters."
"Mayor de Blasio, please say you're sorry to them for having created a false impression of them," Giuliani said on "Face the Nation" Sunday. "You did create a false impression of them. Say you're sorry. Say you didn't realize. Say you didn't realize you have...a non-white police department, in terms of majority."
Still, Giuliani said that he does not blame de Blasio for the deaths and does not think it is appropriate for others to do so. Hundreds of officers turned their backs on the mayor at the Saturday funeral for Rafael Ramos, one of the officers who was killed. It was the second time officers had turned their backs on the mayor after the cops' murders.
"The mayor of the city of New York should not be blamed for the murder of those police officers. That issue should not have been injected. It's wrong. I told the mayor that yesterday. And I don't support that," Giuliani said. "You have to respect the mayor's position."
He does see blame in other places, though. Giuliani doubled down on accusations that President Obama has fostered anti-police "propaganda" across the country, citing his appearances with the Rev. Al Sharpton.
"He has had Al Sharpton to the White House 80, 85 times. Often when he's talking about police issues, he has Al Sharpton sitting next to him. If he would like to have a poster boy for hating the police, it's Al Sharpton," he said.
"Actions speak louder than words. You put Al Sharpton next to you, you just told everyone, 'I'm against the police,'" he added.
On "Fox News Sunday" last week, Giuliani faulted the president for showing too much sympathy toward people protesting the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner at the hands of police officers.
"We've had four months of propaganda starting with the president that everybody should hate the police," he said.
The Washington Post's fact checker gave his statement four Pinocchios, their marker of a "whopper" of a false claim.
Giuliani did not respond to the Post's queries, but said on "Face the Nation" that the fact check was "substantially inaccurate" and that they missed a "big point" in the president's appearances with Sharpton.
He also cited other evidence for his claim: the president's criticism of Cambridge, Massachusetts police when they arrested black Harvard University Professor Henry Louis Gates because they suspected him of burglarizing his own home; paying attention to "these so-called racial incidents, some of which are not racial incidents"; sending representatives to the funerals of slain New York Police Department officers; and not speaking out strongly enough about their deaths.