Rudy Giuliani: Biden ‘doesn’t belong’ in NYC on 9/11 after ‘reckless’ Afghanistan exit
The man dubbed “America’s Mayor” for his handling of New York City on 9/11 says President Biden is not welcome to visit Ground Zero on the 20th anniversary of the terror attacks because of his chaotic withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan that left the nation right back in the hands of the Taliban.
“President Biden shouldn’t come here,” former mayor Rudy Giuliani said during a WABC radio 9/11 remembrance at the station’s studio in Midtown. “He doesn’t belong here.”
The president and first lady Jill Biden are slated to be at Ground Zero Saturday at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum to mark the anniversary of the attacks in which two al Qaeda-hijacked jet airliners were flown into the Twin Towers, toppling them and claiming nearly 3,000 lives.
Giuliani, a Republican more recently famous for serving as former President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, went on to rip the what he called the Democrat Biden’s “reckless” handling of the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“President Biden made decisions that were reckless, almost to the point of insanity,” he said Friday afternoon. “It would be as if I went down to Ground Zero and I said, ‘Take out the firefighters and all you civilians, see if you can get yourselves out and maybe some terrorists can help you out.'”
“If you leave Americans behind, you could be the president or anybody else, I just have no respect for you,” the former mayor added. “President Biden did probably one of the most reckless acts in American history and he’s putting us through hell.”
The ex-mayor’s provocative remarks come after Biden in late August removed troops from Afghanistan — which the US invaded following the Twin Tower attacks — followed by a Taliban takeover of the country and an ISIS-K suicide bombing at the Kabul airport.
Ex-Gov. George Pataki, the Empire State’s chief executive in 2001, struck a more conciliatory tone, distancing himself from Giuliani’s declaration.
“It’s his decision to make,” Pataki told reporters after the event. “I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to tell the president of the United States not to come.”
“If ever there’s a time we should try to put politics aside, it’s at the remembrance of that attack on that horrible day.”
Still, Pataki joined Giuliani at the event — also attended by billionaire supermarket mogul John Catsimatidis and criminally convicted but later pardoned ex-NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik — in blasting Biden’s ending of the two-decade war in Afghanistan.
“I do think the decision he made in Afghanistan was one of the worst decisions any president has made in my lifetime, and I fear the consequences that it will have for New York and America down the road,” said the Pataki, a three-term Republican governor.
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“One of the things we say constantly about Sept. 11 is ‘never forget,'” Pataki continued. “It certainly seems — when it comes to the fact that terrorist attack of Sept 11 was organized and planned from Afghanistan — that Joe Biden did forget.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Additional reporting by Steven Nelson
