Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said that he was allegedly slapped on the back by a ShopRite worker, who was later arrested.
“All of a sudden, I feel this ‘Bam!’ on my back,” Giuliani told the New York Post. “I don’t know if they helped me not fall down, but I just about fell down, but I didn’t.”
He added: “I feel this tremendous pain in my back, and I’m thinking, what the—I didn’t even know what it was … All of a sudden, I hear this guy say, ‘You’re a [expletive] scumbag,’ then he moves away so nobody can grab him.”
“And he says, ‘You, you’re one of the people that’s gonna kill women. You’re gonna kill women,’” Giuliani said, quoting the ShopRite worker. “‘You and your [expletive] friend are gonna kill women.’ Then he starts yelling out all kinds of, just curses, and every once in a while, he puts in that woman thing.”
The incident occurred two days after the Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that argued women have the right to obtain an abortion. It’s not clear how the worker connected the ruling to Giuliani, a former mayor of New York City and more recently, former President Donald Trump’s lawyer.
Giuliani was a the ShopRite location on Veterans Road in Charleston, Staten Island, where he’d been out campaigning for his son, Andrew Giuliani, a Republican who is running for governor of New York.
“The assault on my father, America’s mayor, was over politics,” Andrew Giuliani said in a statement to news outlets on Monday. “We will not be intimidated by left-wing attacks. As governor, I will stand up for law and order so that New Yorkers feel safe again.”
The Republican added, “As governor, I will stand up for law and order so that New Yorkers feel safe again. This message has resonated with voters throughout my campaign, leading up to Tuesday’s primary.” The younger Giuliani, who had worked in the Trump administration, is running against Long Island-based Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), former Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, and businessman Harry Wilson in the GOP primary.
The New York City Police Department confirmed to ABC7 that the worker, identified as Daniel Gill, was arrested. He is now facing a second-degree assault charge for hitting a senior citizen. Giuliani is 78 years old.
A spokesperson for ShopRite told Pxi11 that it was aware of the incident on Sunday that was “instigated by a store associate.”
“Store security observed the incident, reacted swiftly and the police were notified,” the spokesperson told the station. “We have zero tolerance for aggression toward anyone.”
