Giuliani says no 'domestic terror attacks' under Bush
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/11/19/giuliani.jpg caption="Rudy Giuliani said Friday that the United States was not subjected to domestic terror attacks when he was in office."](CNN) - Echoing recent comments from former Bush administration officials, Rudy Giuliani defended former President George Bush's record on terrorism Friday, saying the country was not subjected to domestic terror attacks when he was in office.
"We had no domestic attacks under Bush; we've had one under Obama," Giuliani said on ABC's Good Morning America.
Democrats and other political observers were quick to question Giuliani's comments, wondering how the former New York City mayor would classify the attacks of September 11, 2001, as well as Richard Reid's attempted shoe-bombing in late 2001.
"Giuliani seems to have forgotten about the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and shoe bomber Richard Reid," ABC's George Stephanopoulos, who conducted the Giuliani interview, wrote on his blog.
Giuliani's comments are similar to those of former White House Press Secretary Dana Perino and former Dick Cheney aide Mary Matalin, both of whom have said in recent weeks no terrorism attacks occurred under Bush.
"We did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush's term," Perino told Fox News last November.
In December, Mary Matalin - a former senior adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney - made comments that seemed to place the 9/11 attacks under President Clinton's watch. "We inherited a recession from President Clinton and we inherited the most tragic attack on our own soil in our nation's history," Matalin a CNN analyst, told John King on CNN's "State of the Union" last month.
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What Rudy meant is that after the initial shock in a few months, the administration organized and there were no other attacks on US soil.
This has changed with the attack on a US military bases (more than one) by local extremists this last year, and by other acts (mostly the media does not report and does not refer to Islamist terrorists, since the president and the administration do not classify them as such).
The atmosphere that US local bases are attacked and service men in the US are murdered has happened in 2009, and you can check it. The administration and the media shut up about these attacks and claim they are man made disasters and some guys going crazy!
i do hope someone in this country takes this seriously, the republicans should aall be wiped off the face of the earth by the lord, i wsh that happen.
PS. Just read all the comments posted here....... funny......... not one from a GOPer supporting Rudy's claim.
Rudy you owe America an apology.
When is this little rat going to scurry back into his hole for good? He's like Larry King's less charming brother. Somewhere, a mad scientist is missing his Igor.
But Bush had 9/11 under his watch. Enough for him to take us to Iraq, and fight the war on terror, and somehow got him another term in the White House. Obama slowly but surely is working on the same track. We will have probably another 9/11 but not in that magnitude to help him politicaly. This is not Chicago style politics we are heading, but terrorism style politics, like with that Nigerian.
Of course in another country, in another time, these former Dubya supporters would be holocaust deniers!
How can they believe the biggest domestic terrorist attack on our country did not occur under the Bush administration! Our president sat there reading a children's book to an elementary classroom, as documented on television, for at least 7 minutes before he made any response, while the attacks continued!
Would that administration admit to the greatest U.S. terrorist atrocities on civilians in Iraq? Would that administration admit to torture and extraordinary rendition? Would that administration admit to ignoring our constitution, conveniently, because we kept prisoners of war out of the country, in Cuba? Would that adminstration admit to ignoring the Geneva Convention? Would that administration admit to neglecting to capture or kill the terrorist Osama Bin Laden in Tora Bora when it had the opportunity?
Unbelievable that Giuliani and Matalin and Perino would deny the terrorist attacks of 9/11 occurred under their and Bush's watch! What was that pile of rubble in the Wall St. district Giuliani and Bush were standing on, on 09/12? A demolition site for condos you moron?!!
Two words: Richard Reid
Does anyone still listen to this guy?
Granted 9/11 was international not domestic terrorism. I do seem to remember some ANTHRAX attacks that were called terrorist attacks and those were domestic. These successful terrorist attacks included New York while Rudy was mayor. How quickly they forget!!!
Lot of idiots here today –
9/11 was NOT domestic terrorism. Nor was the shoe bomber.
McVeigh was a domestic terrorist – and that happened on Clinton's watch.
Get an education.
Ironic that the "President of 9/11" should be so quick to forget the terrorist attack.... and the Shoe Bomber and the Anthrax attacks...
Does Cognitive Dissonance mean nothing to these people?
Giuliani is a liar, cheat and simply put....a bad politican by my records! Therefore, he's not to be taken serious or trusted....ask one of his many ex-wifes???
Never happened,never happened. 911 never happened. The GOP know all things. The party of No.
stephensonbillings are you serious 9/11 was not an act of war by Afghanistan it was an act of terrorism by a radical group named Al Qaeda. Please use your head for more than a hat rack. You say Obama was too busy working on health care at least he can chew gum and walk at the same time a president is supposed to be able to handle more than one thing at a time. Bush only talked about war while the fat cats got richer and the economy was falling apart.
What a bunch of idiots. Do you really think that Giuliani actually forgot that there was a Sept. 11? More than likely he was referring to the fact that there were not any more terrorists acts after Sept. 11, 2001.
The Republicans are bad for AMERICA! They will do anything and say anything! How can we trust them to run the country fairly? We need to vote all of them out office!!
None that we know about !!!! His statement proves the old political belief - Repeat something often enough and it will become fact.
I liked Guliani better before he got involved in national politics. He is terrible at playing the role of RNC drone. Come on Rudy, what about the shoe bomber?
and Unemployment was perfect under Bush right? 8% under Bush and 10% under Obama... Bush was perfect.
I find this comment infuriating. If you have a problem with the current administation, fine, voice your opinion, but don't lie to the American public about what happened.
On top of that, George Stephanopoulos is either a spinless worm or an idiot for not calling Giuliani out immediatly on this blatent falsehood.
"Actually they are technically correct; 9/11 and the shoe bomber occured when Dick Cheney was president."
HAHAHHAHAHAHAHA!
Well said.
Which is worse..a fool or a liar, In any case hes wrong again....What a slease...
What happened to his 3 words: "a noun, a verb, and 9/11?"
So was that Bill Clinton reading a story to the kids when our country was attacked in Sept. 11, 2001?
Bush was in office for the worst ever domstic terror attack you idiot,,, what were you on coke at the time?