Rudy Giuliani Addresses NYC Supermarket Slap

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani says he endured a poor and pained night of sleep after he was knocked forward “as if a boulder hit me” at a Staten Island supermarket where he stopped while campaigning for his son in the borough.

The 78-year-old Republican adviser to ex-President Donald Trump said he took a “very, very heavy shot” from an employee at the grocer’s Veterans Road store in Charleston around 3:30 p.m. Sunday.

“It was painful all night. It was hard to sleep,” Giuliani said Monday at a news conference as he worked to recover from what he described as a shoulder injury. “I’m in pretty good shape for a 78-year-old. Not every 78-year-old is in good shape.”

“He could have easily hit me … knocked me to the ground and killed me,” Giuliani said. “The most dangerous thing for elderly people is a fall. It happens in the home often — not some criminal coming up to you and banging you on the back as hard as he could because he’s angry at you, because he disagrees with you politically.”

The former mayor says the jab didn’t knock him down, but “it hurt tremendously.”

“I did not know what it was,” Giuliani said, and called for the man to be prosecuted.

The 39-year-old ShopRite employee was taken into custody at the scene Sunday and is expected to face a charge of second-degree assault, the NYPD said.

Giuliani refused medical attention at the ShopRite but said he anticipated going to get checked out by a doctor later Monday. It wasn’t immediately clear what prompted the slap, but the former mayor — a recent focus of the Jan. 6 committee hearings — had been out campaigning for his son, Andrew, who is seeking the Republican nomination for governor in Tuesday’s primary.

The Jan. 6 committee played audio of Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis, two of Trump’s lawyers, calling state legislators and pressing them to overturn the election.

The slap also came in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Friday decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, a ruling that prompted protests across the country and a number of intense rallies on the streets of New York City.

Andrew Giuliani released a statement condemning the attack on his father.

“The assault on my father, America’s mayor, was over politics,” Andrew Giuliani’s statement said. “We will not be intimidated by left-wing attacks. As governor I will stand up for law and order so that New Yorkers feel safe again.”

Before he was known as a Trump attorney describing unfounded international election plots on television, Rudy Giuliani was hailed a national hero for shepherding the city through the 9/11 terror attacks. He had been a U.S. attorney in New York famous for prosecuting mafia figures and later was a Republican mayor known for tackling crime with his “broken windows” theory of policing.

The philosophy involved deterring serious crime by cracking down on minor offenses such as public urination or panhandling window-washers known as “squeegee men.”

Critics said the theory was not effective and targeted minorities, but in his campaign, Andrew Giuliani has called for the return of “broken windows” policing “all around the state of New York.”

Andrew Giuliani has frequently appeared with his father at news conferences, rallies and other campaign events, the two standing side by side behind a podium or in the back of a truck decorated with a “Giuliani” sign.

Often they wear red Giuliani campaign hats — a design that evokes Trump’s famous “Make America Great Again” hat.

Though Trump has issued endorsements in primaries around the country, he has not issued one for Giuliani or opponent Lee Zeldin, a staunch ally.

“I think Trump wonders if he would help or hurt,” Giuliani mused last week.