Giuliani Blasted Over ‘Racist’ Swipe Against NYC Schools Chief
NEW YORK CITY — "Racist." "Vile." "Unhinged." "Washed up." "Irrelevant." "A disgrace." "Everything wrong with this country."
That’s how New York City officials reacted Wednesday to former Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s swipe against schools Chancellor Richard Carranza.
Giuliani, speaking at a Republican Women’s Club conference, said Carranza “belongs in Cuba.” Carranza is Mexican-American.
Mayor Bill de Blasio, who Giuliani savaged during his speech, backed Carranza by tweeting that Giuliani lobbed “another racist comment” on the second day of Hispanic Heritage Month.
“@RudyGiuliani is irrelevant and represents everything WRONG with this country,” de Blasio tweeted.
On the second day of Hispanic Heritage Month, @RudyGiuliani decides to lob through another racist comment. Fact check. @DOEChancellor Carranza is Mexican American. @RudyGiuliani is irrelevant and represents everything WRONG with this country.
— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) September 16, 2020
Miranda Barbot, a spokesperson for the Department of Education, also defended Carranza and roped in Giuliani’s “boss” President Donald Trump for good measure.
“A cool (read: racist, inaccurate) thing to say on Mexican Independence Day about the highest-ranking Latino and Mexican-American in NYC government,” she tweeted. “Rudy and his boss never fail to show us who they are: washed up, unabashed racists at every turn.”
Barbot capped the tweet with a simple fact about Carranza’s background: “Also, he's from Tucson.”
A cool (read: racist, inaccurate) thing to say on Mexican Independence Day about the highest-ranking Latino and Mexican-American in NYC government. Rudy and his boss never fail to show us who they are: washed up, unabashed racists at every turn. Also, he's from Tucson. https://t.co/PsnxEoVWjM
— Miranda Barbot (@MirandaBarbot) September 16, 2020
City Council Speaker Corey Johnson also weighed in.
“This is racist and vile,” he tweeted. “Rudy Giuliani is a disgrace.“
Giuliani’s insult against Carranza came amid a speech in which he attacked de Blasio — “the worst mayor in the history of New York City,” he said — as well as Black Lives Matter protesters, the New York Daily News reported.
He also called for the city to hire 9,000 more police officers to deal with a recent spike in shooting and perceived problems with homeless people — a stance de Blasio was asked about during his own conference.
“I think he has amnesia,” de Blasio said. “I think he's out of touch with reality. I think we've seen more and more Rudy Giuliani become unhinged, and I'm just not waiting around to hear what he thinks.”
De Blasio said up until the “perfect storm” around the coronavirus pandemic the NYPD drove down crime year after year.
The Daily News reported Giuliani, by text, told a reporter that his Carranza comment was a critique of the chancellor’s progressive policies with Cuba as an example of “socialism.” But he also “appeared to still be under the impression that Carranza is Cuban,” the Daily News reported.
“If he is Cuban it’s not a race, it’s a nationality,” Giuliani texted, according to Daily News reporter Chris Sommerfeldt on Twitter.
I asked Rudy what he made of accusations that it was racist for him to say @DOEChancellor "belongs in Cuba," since Carranza's Mexican-American....His reply suggests he still believes Carranza's Cuban: "If he is Cuban it’s not a race, it’s a nationality." https://t.co/xtpk17XKLG
— Chris Sommerfeldt (@C_Sommerfeldt) September 16, 2020
This article originally appeared on the New York City Patch
