As John McCain demonstrated in 2008 (and Mitt Romney learned the hard way), when some crazy supporter calls Barack Obama a treasonous, un-American “monster,” you’re supposed to tell them they’re wrong. But what if that crazy supporter used to be the mayor of New York and you’re pretty sure the only people listening are Republicans? That’s the dilemma Scott Walker faced on Wednesday night when Rudy Giuliani shared his uncensored thoughts about the president during the Wisconsin governor’s dinner with about 60 prominent advocates of supply-side economics. “I do not believe, and I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I do not believe that the president loves America,” Giuliani said 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.”
Politico reports that with Walker seated a few seats away, Giuliani said he’s looking for a president who will make it clear that, despite our flaws, America is “the most exceptional country in the world.” “And if it’s you Scott, I’ll endorse you,” he added. “And if it’s somebody else, I’ll support somebody else.”
In an interview following the Walker event, Giuliani said he’ll “eventually” back a candidate in the 2016 race, and fumed about Obama’s remark earlier this month that, just as groups like ISIS distort the message of Islam, “during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ.”
“I thought the Crown Heights riots were a pogrom because you’re going out trying to kill Jews,” Giuliani said. “Why is this man incapable of saying that? You’ve got to be able to criticize Islam for the parts of Islam that are wrong. You criticize Christianity for the part of Christianity that is wrong. I’m not sure how wrong the Crusades are. The Crusades were kind of an equal battle between two groups of barbarians. The Muslims and the crusading barbarians. What the hell? What’s wrong with this man that he can’t stand up and say there’s a part of Islam that’s sick?”
Presumably Walker didn’t hear Giuliani’s tirade on religion, but does he agree that President Obama wasn’t raised to love America like the rest of us? We don’t know, because Walker’s aides “insisted all of the governor’s comments were off-the-record,” according to Politico. Maybe the governor will weigh in on the controversy with another vague tweet.
