Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani Lashes Out At President Obama, Bill de Blasio On Fox News After Police Shootings

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani accused President Barack Obama and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio of creating what he called propaganda that led to Saturday’s shooting death of two NYPD officers. On “Fox News Sunday,” the former presidential candidate blamed the two, as well as others who have protested against police brutality in recent months.

"We've had four months of propaganda, starting with the president, that everybody should hate the police," Giuliani said during an appearance on the Fox News program. "I don't care how you want to describe it -- that's what those protests are all about."

Giuliani’s comments followed similarly biting rhetoric from former New York Gov. George Pataki, who lashed out at de Blasio and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Twitter Saturday.

“Sickened by these barbaric acts, which sadly are a predictable outcome of divisive anti-cop rhetoric of Eric Holder and Mayor de Blasio,” the governor tweeted.

The comments also echoed the words of NYC Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch who said blood was "on many hands."

"That blood on the hands starts on the steps of City Hall, in the office of the mayor," Lynch said.

Giuliani pointed to the nationwide protests that followed the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in New York, and sparked again after the officers who killed them were not indicted by grand juries as part of what led to the shooting of the two officers in Brooklyn.

"The protest are being embraced, the protests are being encouraged. The protests, even the ones that don't lead to violence -- a lot of them lead to violence -- all of them lead to a conclusion: The police are bad, the police are racist," Giuliani said. "That is completely wrong. Actually, the people who do the most for the black community in America are the police."

Giuliani went on to say what he would tell police officers if he were still mayor.

"I think I would say to them, and I have said this to the police, 'You know, the people who are saving black lives in this city are you, the New York City Police Department.' I'm not doing it. President Obama is not doing it. Mayor de Blasio is not doing it," Giuliani went on. "He's not out at night walking up and down housing developments and trying to save children from being killed. The police officers are doing the most, right now, in these very, very poor communities."

Giulani was a strong advocate of police officers during his time as mayor, perhaps too much so critics argued. The man who became known as America’s Mayor following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks presided over a number of complaints against police, most notably the cases of Amadou Diallo, Patrick Dorismand and Abner Louima.

Diallo was killed by NYPD officers in 1999 when officers fired 41 shots and hit him 19 times as he reached for his wallet. Dorismand was an unarmed, off-duty security guard who was shot dead by undercover police officer Anthony Vasquez in 2000 during an attempted drug sting. Louima accused NYPD officers of torturing and sexually assaulting him in 1997. One of the officers was convicted of sodomizing Louima with a broken piece of a broomstick, tearing a one-inch hole in his rectum and bladder. The officer was sentenced to 30 years in prison.