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By Brian Trusdell and Jeffrey Rodack (NEWSMAX)
Andrew Giuliani vowed, during a Tuesday interview on Newsmax TV, to turn things around in the Empire State if he’s elected governor of New York.
Giuliani, the son of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, made the pledge just hours after formally announcing his gubernatorial bid. If elected, he would become the state’s first Republican chief executive since George Pataki in 2006 and the second since 1974.
“It’s time for New York to turn things around,” Giuliani said on “National Report.” “To stop people moving down to Florida, Texas, and Tennessee, we need to build things back in New York and it starts today. I know we can do it.”
Giuliani said he was convinced to run after donors approached him and told him: “Frankly, we want you to run.” And he said his father agreed.
Giuliani, who became a Newsmax TV contributor in March but left the position after disclosing he was considering a run, made his official announcement seeking the 2022 Republican nomination during an interview with the New York Post.
“I know we can defeat [Gov.] Andrew Cuomo in 2022,” he said. “I am going to be the 57th governor of New York.”
Giuliani compared a potential showdown with the beleaguered three-term incumbent Cuomo, a Democrat, to a famed heavyweight boxing match.
“Giuliani vs. Cuomo,” he said. “Holy smokes. It’s Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier. We can sell tickets at Madison Square Garden.”
Giuliani, 35, is a veteran of the Trump administration, having worked as the White House director of the Office of Public Liaison.
Giuliani’s bid for governor as an ex-staffer at the Trump White House who’s also the child of a high-profile politician follows right behind Sarah Sanders, the ex-White House Press Secretary and daughter of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee who’s currently running for her dad’s old job.
Among Andrew Giuliani’s first wave of supporters are former New York Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik and former Trump senior adviser Boris Epshteyn.
Giuliani has lambasted Cuomo, accusing him of costing “15,000 senior citizens’ lives” due to his nursing home edicts early on during the COVID-19 outbreak, and of creating a “mass exodus” of New York residents fleeing the state for lower taxes, more liberty and safer environs.
Cuomo is currently embroiled in an investigation by the state attorney general after reports of alleged sexual misconduct. He’s also facing a Department of Justice probe over his alleged cover-up of data showing COVID-19 nursing home deaths, a charge that’s also under investigation in New York. And he’s been the subject of impeachment talk from state legislators.
Giuliani is expected to carry the banner of tough-on-crime politicians such as his father — whose post-9/11 leadership earned him the nickname “America’s Mayor” — and former President Donald Trump.
