Rudy Giuliani Assaulted While Campaigning for Son Andrew by ShopRite Employee Who Slapped Him on Back, Called Him ‘Scumbag’: Report

TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images.

Rudy Giuliani reportedly had an altercation with a ShopRite employee in Staten Island on Sunday while campaigning for his son, Andrew Giuliani, with a 39-year-old local man allegedly slapping the former mayor on the back and telling him, “Hey, what’s up, scumbag?”

Giuliani’s son is running for New York Governor, seeking the GOP nomination in the primary election this coming Tuesday. The last few polls among Republicans have generally shown Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) in the lead among the four primary candidates, with Andrew Giuliani in second.

According to a report by The New York Post, Giuliani “almost went down” but soon “regained his composure” after, as an eyewitness described, a man “came out of nowhere and open-handedly slapped him in the back.” The man reportedly said to Giuliani “Hey, what’s up, scumbag?” and continued to curse at him.

The alleged assailant was not named, but he was identified as a 39-year-old employee of the ShopRite where Giuliani was campaigning, and said to have been on duty at the time. Police were called around 3:30 pm ET, the Post reported, and responded to the scene and took the man into custody. He had no prior arrests and is being charged with second-degree assault on a person over the age of 65. (Giuliani is 78.)

Andrew told the Post that his father was “doing fine,” and had reassured him that he was “feelin’ good,” even joking that he had run into “the only person who is not voting for Andrew Giuliani.”

“But it’s a sad day when New Yorkers’ greatest crime fighter, ‘America’s Mayor,’ is attacked. I blame the left-wing for encouraging violence,” said Andrew. “This is crazy.”

UPDATE 8:15 pm ET: The New York Times reported additional details, including that Giuliani said that the man apparently referenced the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, saying “You’re going to kill women, you’re going to kill women.” Giuliani also made these comments to the Times about the alleged assault:

Mr. Giuliani said that he had red marks on his back, but was not bleeding and had remained on his feet after being struck. He had been planning to hand out fliers for his son, Andrew Giuliani, ahead of Tuesday’s Republican primary for governor. The younger Mr. Giuliani was not on hand.

“My back hurts, but otherwise I’m able to walk and stuff like that,” the former mayor said. “He almost knocked me down. Thank God for a 78-year-old, I am in pretty good shape.”

Video purporting to show the incident began circulating on Twitter Sunday evening. Watch below:

WATCH Former New York City Mayor @RudyGiuliani, now 78, claimed he was assaulted by a 39-year-old Staten Island supermarket employee who exchanged words with him. pic.twitter.com/jCC01RcG7Y

— BNN Newsroom (@BNNBreaking) June 26, 2022

UPDATE 8:45 pm ET: New information added to the Post article confirms the alleged assailant’s comments about Roe (“You guys think you’re saving babies, but you’re going to kill women”) and the surveillance video, as well as reporting additional comments from Giuliani, who claimed he “just about fell down” and “felt a tremendous pain in my back” from the slap.

Giuliani also called into a talk radio program, the Curtis Sliwa Show on 77 WABC, and said he thought it felt like “somebody shot me,” and said he was in “pretty good shape…if I wasn’t I would have hit the ground and probably cracked my skull.”

The video is embedded above, and readers can watch and judge for themselves the severity of the alleged assault.

This article has been updated to include additional information and to reflect that Rudy Giuliani was campaigning for Andrew Giuliani at the time of the incident, but Andrew was not physically present.