NEW YORK — The spirit of unity didn’t last very long.
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani warned President Joe Biden on Friday to stay away from the city during this weekend’s 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, claiming the commander in chief is a persona non grata because of his recent withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
Giuliani delivered the harsh message for Biden at a 9/11 commemoration event in Manhattan, where other speakers, including former New York Gov. George Pataki, had repeatedly stressed the importance of political “unity” ahead of the solemn anniversary.
But the hotheaded former GOP mayor couldn’t hold back when the New York Daily News asked what he thought of Biden coming to town Saturday to attend an anniversary memorial at ground zero.
“Biden shouldn’t come here. He doesn’t belong here,” Giuliani said during the event at WABC Radio’s studio in Midtown Manhattan. “Biden made a decision that was reckless to the point of almost insanity ... I mean, President Biden did probably one of the most reckless acts in American history, and then he continues it with more and more, and he’s putting us through hell.”
A White House spokesman did not return a request for comment.
Biden’s troop drawdown has prompted intense criticism from Republicans since 13 U.S. service members and dozens of Afghan civilians were killed in a suicide bombing outside Kabul’s airport last month amid frenzied efforts to get Americans out of the country by an Aug. 31 deadline.
But Pataki signaled that Giuliani may have taken it a step too far by telling Biden to stay out of New York.
“I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to tell the president of the United States not to come,” Pataki, who was governor on 9/11, told reporters when asked if he agreed with Giuliani’s sentiment.
The former Republican governor added, “You know, if ever there’s a time when we should try to put politics aside it’s the remembrance of that attack and that horrible day ... I think regardless of politics, we just respect the fact that they are there at that moment to pay tribute to those who died.”
Aside from the partisan jabs at Biden, Giuliani, Pataki, former NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik and others in attendance dedicated most of the event to looking back at the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001.
New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan also made a surprise appearance, popping in to offer a blessing for the speakers.
In his remarks, Kerik praised the emergency responders who helped thousands of New Yorkers to safety in the immediate aftermath of the attacks.
“They took 20 to 25,000 people out of those buildings and the surrounding buildings within eight hours and they evacuated more than a million people in southern Manhattan almost flawlessly,” Kerik said. “Unparalleled, never happened before, never happened since. Hope to God it never happens again. They are the heroes.”
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