NEW YORK – Andrew Giuliani declared crime-fighting his “most important” political priority as he announced a long-shot Republican campaign for New York governor on Tuesday — just weeks after the FBI raided his father’s home and office on the hunt for evidence of alleged foreign agent crimes.
Speaking in downtown Manhattan’s Battery Park, the 35-year-old son of ex-Mayor Rudy Giuliani took aim at Gov. Andrew Cuomo and used the incumbent Democrat’s alleged coronavirus mismanagement scandal as a jumping-off point for his tough-on-crime pitch.
“We’ve all seen how Andrew Cuomo has served himself. We’ve seen $5 million for a book deal. But while Andrew Cuomo makes seven figures a year serving himself, I’m happy to go and volunteer my time to be the candidate for governor,” Giuliani said, referencing this week’s revelations about Cuomo’s COVID-19 crisis book windfall.
Unlike Cuomo, Giuliani claimed, he would be a servant for New Yorkers, not himself.
“Maybe most importantly, in a Governor Giuliani, you will get somebody that has a strategy to reduce crime in a record-setting fashion. I’ve heard that before from somewhere. I think his name was Giuliani also,” he said, speaking with the Statue of Liberty as his backdrop.
But the “law and order” reputation Rudy Giuliani earned as mayor in the 1990s took a serious hit last month, when FBI agents seized his electronic devices during early morning raids at his Manhattan apartment and law firm. The raids were part of an ongoing criminal investigation into Giuliani’s 2019 business dealings in Ukraine, which may have violated foreign lobbying laws and overlapped with former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment.
Andrew Giuliani, whose only public service experience was serving as a White House aide to Trump, claimed his 76-year-old father is being targeted by the feds only because of his political allegiance to the ex-president.
“If that doesn’t worry every American, the fact that the Justice Department would be monitoring the president of the United States’ lawyer, then you’re just not paying attention,” he said. “That’s not a red or blue thing. That’s a red, white and blue thing.”
The younger Giuliani’s campaign announcement could prove a serious headache for Long Island Rep. Lee Zeldin and former Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, the other two Republicans in the quixotic GOP primary battle.
Trump, who still retains the elder Giuliani as his personal lawyer, has not endorsed in the race yet, but encouraged Andrew Giuliani to run last month. The ex-president’s eventual endorsement is expected to carry significant weight and clear the way for a front-runner.
Despite his legal woes, Giuliani told reporters in Battery Park that he expects his father to play a major role on his campaign.
“When you got the greatest prosecutor in the history of the Southern District, and you’ve got the greatest mayor, not this, not just in the history of New York, but in the history of America, you’re foolish if you don’t use him as an asset,” he said. “There’s no more effective playbook than the Giuliani playbook.”
New York has not had a Republican chief executive since Gov. George Pataki left office in 2006. Since then, New York has only grown more Democratic, rendering any GOP bid for statewide office highly unlikely to succeed.
But Giuliani, like Zeldin and Astorino, is hoping Cuomo’s alleged sexual harassment and coronavirus mismanagement scandals could give them a leg up in the deep blue state.
Beyond crime-fighting, Giuliani said in his kickoff remarks that he will campaign on cutting taxes, expanding charter school access and ending the “war on our cops.”
“This is going to be one heck of a ride,” he said. “But we’re going to have a lot of fun doing it.”
Though his political resume is light, Andrew Giuliani became a familiar name to New Yorkers after late comedian Chris Farley played him in a 1994 “Saturday Night Live” skit that poked fun at an appearance he made at his father’s first mayoral inauguration.
Cuomo, who is expected to seek reelection for a fourth term, could face a Democratic primary challenge amid widespread outrage over his swirling scandals. Attorney General Letitia James, who’s investigating Cuomo over his alleged sexual misconduct, has been rumored to be considering a primary campaign.
New York’s general gubernatorial election is slated for Nov. 8, 2022.
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