President Barack Obama doesn’t love America, says former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
“I do not believe, and I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I do not believe that the president loves America,” he told a dinner Wednesday at Manhattan’s 21 Club. “He doesn’t love you. And he doesn’t love me. He wasn’t brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up through love of this country.”
His questioning of Obama’s resolve, and his commitment to his country, is hardly new for a wing of the Republican Party that has not accepted the president as a worthy chief executive. They’ve questioned his birthplace and his upbringing, and many have charged he doesn’t share their view of America’s role in the world.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who’s weighing a 2016 presidential bid, defended Giuliani. “The gist of what Mayor Giuliani said – that the President has shown himself to be completely unable to speak the truth about the nature of the threats from these ISIS terrorists — is true,” Jindal told TIME. “If you are looking for someone to condemn the Mayor, look elsewhere.”
Wednesday night, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, also a possible White House contender, blasted Obama.
“What undermines the global effort (against terrorism) is for the president of the United States to be an apologist for radical Islamic terrorists,” he told Fox News’ Megyn Kelly.
At the Iowa Freedom Summit last month, former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore won applause from activists after saying “This president doesn’t believe that America is a force for good in the world. I do.
“This president doesn’t believe that America is an exceptional nation and I know it is and you know it,” Gilmore continued to an appreciative crowd.
Democrats fought back Thursday as the party began a three-day winter meeting.
Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz quickly blasted Giuliani. “Is this what it’s really come to? Really?” she asked.
“Sure, we have policy differences, and we should talk about them,” she said. “Sure, we have big differences over the direction we should take the country; we should talk about those too. But for them, it’s more than that. It’s personal, and it’s ugly, and there’s no sign of it getting better.”
Giuliani tried to clarify his remarks Thursday morning on “Fox and Friends.”
“Well, first of all, I’m not questioning his patriotism. He’s a patriot, I’m sure,” Giuliani said. “What I’m saying is, in his rhetoric I very rarely hear the things that I used to hear Ronald Reagan say, the things that I used to hear Bill Clinton say about how much he loves America. “
The former mayor charged “I do hear him criticize America much more often than other American presidents. And when it’s not in the context of an overwhelming number of statements about the exceptionalism of America, it sounds like he’s more of a critic than he is a supporter.”
That wasn’t good enough for Wasserman Schultz, a Florida congresswoman.
“What he said was, I’m not questioning his patriotism. I’m just saying he doesn’t love America like we do,” she told the Democratic Party meeting. ““I’m glad we got that cleared up.
“In all seriousness, I rarely agreed with President Bush, but I never questioned his love for our country. I don’t often agree with my Republican colleagues on the Hill, but I know they love America.”
She saw another disturbing sign. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, one of the early leaders in Republican presidential primary polls, was sitting near Giuliani when he spoke, “and didn’t say a word,” Wasserman Schultz said. Walker has not made similar criticisms.
Other potential 2016 presidential candidates, though, have teed off on Obama, though in somewhat less stark terms. Former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton told McClatchy last month “President Obama doesn’t make national security a priority.”
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas drew cheers from the Iowa crowd last month when he charged “Over the past six years, we hae seen the fruits of the Obama-Clinton foreign policy of receding from leadership in the world. Leading from behind doesn’t work.”
The party’s more center-right wing has been more measured, and in 2008, Republican presidential nominee John McCain defended Obama. Audience members hollered that the Democrat was a “liar” and a “terrorist,” and a woman said he was an “Arab.”
“No, ma’am,” McCain said, “He's a decent family man¦that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues and that's what this campaign's all about."
McCain defended Obama again a year later, when Obama was president and in the midst of a bitter health care policy debate.
During a town hall in Arizona, an audience member said to McCain of the president: “Doesn't he know that we still live under a Constitution?"
“I am sure that he does and I'm sure he respects the Constitution," McCain replied. “…He is sincere in his beliefs, we just happen to disagree. And he is the president. And let's be respectful .”
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