On the day New Yorkers head to the polls for the primaries, former mayor Rudy Giuliani endorsed Republican frontrunner Donald Trump.
“I’m Rudy Giuliani … I endorse Donald Trump,” Giuliani said on CNN Tuesday morning.
Giuliani plans to vote for Trump in Tuesday’s New York Republican primary, but stressed he’s not part of the Trump campaign.
“I’m not a surrogate,” Giuliani said. “They haven’t asked me to do anything. I’m not involved in the campaign.”
Giuliani’s spokesman, Jake Menges, said on April 8 that the former mayor considers Trump “a friend,” and always believed he would back Trump over his rival, Ted Cruz.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump talks to the former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani at a fundraising event in the Bronx, New York City, July 6, 2015. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)Trumps unpredictability is a virtue for Giuliani, who thinks that Trump, like a curveball, is the only one who can beat Hillary.
“Cruz is a straight overhand fastball for Hillary Clinton. She’ll knock him out of the park,” Giuliani said of Cruz. “Trump—she’ll have no idea what to do with. He is a Mariano Rivera.”
Giuliana was referring to New York Yankees pitcher, Rivera, who played 19 seasons in New York.
Giuliani, who was the city’s mayor during the September 11 terrorist attacks, made a failed bid for the Republican nomination in 2008.
He has made several previous public appearances with Trump, including at a golf tournament last summer after Trump announced his candidacy.
In recent polls, Trump has a big lead over Ted Cruz among Republican voters in New York.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
