Giuliani: President Obama doesn't love America

Updated
Rudy Giuliani Clarifies Comments Against Obama
Rudy Giuliani Clarifies Comments Against Obama


By MORGAN WHITAKER

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani became one of the most vociferous critics of President Barack Obama's new vision for combating ISIS and similar terrorist groups Wednesday, questioning whether or not the president really "loves America" while discussing his recent foreign policy remarks.

"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 during a speech first reported on by Politico at a dinner event in New York Wednesday night. "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."

The former mayor appeared on "Fox & Friends" Thursday to clarify his comments, but he did not apologize or retract them.

"Well, first of all, I'm not questioning his patriotism. He's a patriot, I'm sure," Giuliani said. "What I'm saying is, in his rhetoric I very rarely hear the things that I used to hear Ronald Reagan say, the things that I used to hear Bill Clinton say about how much he loves America. [...] I do hear him criticize America much more often than other American presidents. And when it's not in the context of an overwhelming number of statements about the exceptionalism of America, it sounds like he's more of a critic than he is a supporter."

Giuliani's not the only New York institution to bristle at the president's foreign policy. The New York Post took a particularly blunt approach to Obama's comments Wednesday differentiating Islamic extremists who make up groups like ISIS from peaceful Muslims. On the paper's Thursday cover, it showed an image of the president in a blindfold with the message "Islamic terror? I just don't see it," written below.

MORE: Obama sounds off on "perverted Islam."

Others have criticized the White House in recent weeks for shying away from describing recent terror attacks in Paris and other parts of Europe as "Islamic extremism."

"We are not at war with Islam," Obama said Wednesday during a White House summit on countering violent extremism. "We are at war with people who have perverted Islam."

Do you agree with Giuliani's assessment of the president? Tell us in the comments.

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