Giuliani on 9/11: First Responders’ ‘Bravery’ Helped Us Prevail; On Difference of Now, 2001: ‘More of a Feeling of General Patriotism Then’

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani on Friday reflected on 9/11 and how the nation united after the attacks.

Giuliani told FNC’s “Fox & Friends” that the first responders’ “bravery” helped the United States prevail from the terrorists’ attempts to “break the spirit of America.”

“[T]he firefighters — and I emphasize — the police officers saved us by being so brave that the next day’s story was as much about their bravery as about the evil of the Islamic extremist terrorists,” Giuliani stated. “They prevailed. The Islamic extremist terrorists did not achieve what they wanted to achieve, which was to break the spirit of America and destroy our way of life. In fact, it was reinforced. And I believe the thing that turned that around was the bravery of those uniformed officers.”

Giuliani said that the difference between now and 2001 is “there was more of a feeling of general patriotism then.” He added people were not taking a knee for the national anthem nor burning flags, making it easier for the country to come together.

“Maybe the difference was that we were at the beginning of a presidential term — we weren’t two months from an election,” Giuliani advised. “Election years always bring out the worst in everybody, I think. Frankly, I think we weren’t quite as partisan and we weren’t quite as divided into two camps as we are today. So, it was a little bit easier for us to come together, and there was more of a feeling of general patriotism then. That percentage of people that feel that is down. I mean, we didn’t have people taking a knee to the national anthem or people burning the flags. That had been in the 1970s and 1980s. We were long past, so it was pretty easy to summon up patriotism. We weren’t having this kind of hate America movement going on that was countering it.”

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