New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is taking the Big Apple back to when it had high levels of crime 30 years ago with "pro-criminal, anti-police" policies, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani told "Fox & Friends" Thursday.
Giuliani's comments come amid reports that shootings and violent crimes have spiked amid the already crippling coronavirus pandemic, which he blames on Democratic leadership that ignores the issues.
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"The last time this city was like this, the last time the city had riots and crime at this level we had a Democratic mayor. All during the period of time, we had 30 years of massive crime. So, if this sets in, it's not going to end," President Trump's lawyer said. "We need a change in leadership."
Will Cain, a new "Fox & Friends Weekend" host, interviewed a restaurant owner in midtown Manhattan who said he noticed an improvement under Giuliani's leadership in commerce and safety but shared that he recently put metal grates over his windows because of the recent spike in crime.
"These things are happening in these cities because the Democrats have pro-criminal, anti-police policies. The reason it's happening is not Donald Trump. Donald Trump didn't release 8,000 people from prison. De Blasio did," Giuliani said, also blaming Gov. Andrew Cuomo. "I mean, there are children living next to sexual predators as a result of these two idiots."
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The former mayor slammed de Blasio for his handling of COVID-19, which completely devastated New York City early in the spring.
"The president recognized it four weeks before the mayor," Giuliani said. "It's the mayor who after the president cut down any kind of contact with China was inviting people to go out to parties and telling them it isn't so bad. So stop all this nonsense about the president mishandling the pandemic ...Cuomo didn't get it for three weeks and then he stuffed our nursing homes with people who didn't have to die, and that he has tried to blame on the president ...The Democrats are playing shift the blame to the president for things they actually did."
On Wednesday, de Blasio attempted to defend first lady Chirlane McCray against backlash after it was discovered she had private staff getting paid millions in taxpayer money and is reportedly looking to run for Brooklyn borough president.
Some of the McCray staffers, who cost city taxpayers nearly $2 million a year combined, work for the first lady’s $1.25 billion mental health initiative ThriveNYC, which has come under fire for its lack of metrics.
"His wife would be under major investigation if she weren't a Democrat," Giuliani said. "You know, in this country, Democrats hardly ever get investigated and they hardly ever get indicted even by a Republican Justice Department. She's gotten away with murder with that Thrive thing ... no audits ... no reports. Money just flows in there and nobody has to figure out what she has done or what she has held."
In a 2019 report, Politico described ThriveNYC -- a broad $850 million program to address mental health -- as having an "opaque budget" and operating with little accountability.
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"Everybody knows this guy is corrupt as hell and nobody does anything about it," Giuliani said of de Blasio. "He's also disliked by everyone. Not even Democrats like him. And to blame it on the president is so totally ridiculous. I think people laugh at him."
But Giuliani called the homeless crisis de Blasio's "worst failing up until now" as more New Yorkers are experiencing homelessness than ever before.
"I wrote an op-ed piece about three years ago saying a city with homeless people has a mayor that doesn't love people," he said. "Because, if you have a heart and conscience and you see somebody that's homeless, you do something about it."
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