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A grocery store worker on Staten Island was arrested on Sunday after smacking Rudolph W. Giuliani on the back while the former mayor campaigned on behalf of his son, a Republican candidate for governor, according to the police and Mr. Giuliani.
In a brief interview, Mr. Giuliani said he was walking through a ShopRite grocery store in the Charleston neighborhood with supporters when the employee disparaged him and slapped his back, then made an apparent reference to abortion.
“The one thing he said was political was ‘you’re going to kill women, you’re going to kill women,'” he said. Giuliani, who said he understood the remark to be about the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade on Friday.
The initial account shared by police did not mention abortion, but said that an unnamed 39-year-old man had hit Mr. Giuliani in the mid-back while saying, “What’s up, scumbag?”
The man was taken into custody. Police were still investigating and it was not immediately clear what, if any, charges the man could face.
Mr. Giuliani, a Republican who recently served as Donald J. Trump’s personal lawyer, has had a long and conflicted relationship with abortion rights – first opposing them, then supporting them, then reversing himself again.
Earlier Sunday, he said on his radio program that he had gone through “a torturous, intellectual, and emotional and moral situation with abortion” before ultimately concluding that he opposed it.
Mr. Mr. Giuliani is under intense scrutiny for his role in Mr. Trump’s attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which culminated in a deadly riot at the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. In the interview, he denounced political violence.
“This has to stop. This is getting ridiculous, ”he said. “I’ve been in politics for 50 years, I’ve never been attacked like this.”
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. ”
Azi Paybarah and Dana Rubinstein contributed reporting.
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