A worker at a New York grocery store has been arrested after slapping Rudy Giuliani on the back and calling him a “shaker” during a campaign rally Sunday for his son, a GOP candidate for governor.
The incident, which was initially considered an assault, was shared in video footage in the hours after the meeting at a ShopRite store on Staten Island. A man wearing a mask is seen walking by Giuliani before hitting him on the back with an outstretched hand. It’s unclear how hard the man slapped the former New York mayor, who looked surprised at the encounter, but does not appear to be physically shaken.
Giuliani moved quickly to label the incident as an assault and the man was arrested at the scene.
“I suddenly feel a shot on my back, as if someone shot me. I went forward, but luckily I did not fall, “he told The Curtis Silwa Show. “Luckily I’m a 78-year-old in pretty good shape, because if I hadn’t been, I would have hit the ground and probably cracked my skull.”
Giuliani added to The New York Times that he had red marks on his back after the incident, saying the site “hurts, but otherwise I can walk and stuff like that.”
“He almost knocked me down,” Giuliani told the newspaper, saying the man told him, “What’s going on, crook?”
The former mayor was not injured and turned down medical attention, WABC-TV reported.
The NYPD told Axios a 39-year-old has been arrested and will face a charge of second-degree assault.
Andrew Giuliani, who is running for the Republican nomination in the New York governor’s race, said the incident was an “attack” that left his father “shaken”.
“Innocent people are constantly being attacked in today’s New York. “This particular incident happened very close to home,” Andrew Giuliani said in a statement. “The assault on my father, America’s mayor, was about politics. We will not be intimidated by leftist attacks. “
Giuliani was a key focus during the ongoing hearings on January 6 over the uprising at the US Capitol over his work that helped then-President Donald Trump reverse the outcome of the 2020 election.
