The decision places the award on a man once lauded for leading New York after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and later sanctioned by courts and disbarred for amplifying false claims about the 2020 election. Giuliani was also criminally charged in two states; he has denied wrongdoing.Trump in a statement on social media called Giuliani the “greatest Mayor in the history of New York City, and an equally great American Patriot.”
For much of the past two decades, Giuliani’s public life has been defined by a striking rise and fall. After leading New York through the aftermath of Sept. 11, he mounted a brief campaign for the Republican presidential nomination and became one of the most recognizable political figures in the country. But as Trump’s personal lawyer, he became a central figure in efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Courts repeatedly rejected the fraud claims he advanced, and two former Georgia election workers won a $148 million defamation judgment against him.
The election workers, Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, said Giuliani’s efforts to promote Trump’s lies about the election being stolen led to death threats that made them fear for their lives.
Giuliani was disbarred in New York and Washington for repeatedly making false statements about the election, and he was criminally charged in Georgia and Arizona in connection with efforts to undo Trump’s loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
Giuliani, 81, was hospitalized after the Saturday night collision in New Hampshire. State police said he was a passenger in a rented Ford Bronco driven by his spokesperson, Ted Goodman, when the vehicle was struck from behind by a Honda HR-V. Giuliani suffered a fractured thoracic vertebra along with multiple lacerations, contusions and injuries to his left arm and leg, according to his security chief, Michael Ragusa. On Monday, Ragusa said Giuliani remained in the hospital but was expected to be released “soon.”
The Medal of Freedom, established in 1963, is awarded to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, or cultural or other significant public endeavors.
Giuliani joined the Republican Party early in his political career. He lost by a small margin in 1989, but in 1993 he won the election for mayor, making him the first Republican to hold the office in twenty years. He said he would fix the city's money problems and fight crime, and people said he did well in both areas. He slashed costs by, among other things, cutting the number of city workers and getting unions to agree to lower wages. The mayor told the police to be tough on even small violations of the law. People who littered, jaywalked, or drove recklessly were all given tickets for breaking the law. People started calling him "the Nanny of New York" after this campaign. But the crime rate went down, and the mayor said that New York had become a more civilized environment.
But there were some who didn't like Giuliani. Some others said he was claiming credit for a drop in crime that was happening all throughout the country. Also, in a number of cases when police brutality was reported, the mayor looked to be justifying the cops' bad behavior. Some people think the mayor's actions are petty, like when he wouldn't meet with important visitors if he didn't agree with their views. In 1999, the mayor spoke out against a contentious display at the Brooklyn Museum of Art that contained pieces that many people deemed offensive or blasphemous. This was a well publicized event. He tried to stop the museum from getting money, but the court said no. Still, the mayor's popularity ratings were usually strong, and some thought he may compete for the U.S. Senate in 2000. But once it came out that he had prostate cancer and was getting a divorce from his wife, Donna Hanover, Giuliani said in May 2000 that he would not run.
On September 11, 2001, New York City was the site of the bloodiest terrorist assault in the United States. Hijackers drove commercial jets into the twin buildings of the World Trade Center, killing over 2,800 people. People praised Giuliani for how he handled the issue, and some even wanted him to run for a third term, even though New York City law said a mayor couldn't serve more than two terms in a row. But Giuliani chose not to run for office again. Queen Elizabeth II gave him an honorary knighthood for his work after the attacks.
Donald Trump and the 2008 presidential election, as well as legal problems
Giuliani and Ken Kurson wrote Leadership, which came out in 2002. Giuliani said in 2007 that he will run for the Republican Party's presidential nomination in 2008. He was one of the early front-runners since his agenda centered on national security. He gave up over a month of caucuses and primaries to other candidates by focusing his campaign on the Florida primary. He dropped out of the race in late January 2008 after coming in a distant third in Florida.
Giuliani was an early and strong backer of Donald Trump's run for president in 2016. When Trump won the election, Giuliani was a strong candidate for secretary of state, but in the end, Rex W. Tillerson was picked for the job. Trump, on the other hand, asked Giuliani to be an unofficial cybersecurity advisor. In April 2018, Giuliani joined the legal team that was helping the president with the special counsel's probe into suspected Russian meddling in the 2016 election. He often appeared on TV to defend the president, but some people believed that some of his statements were not beneficial to Trump. Giuliani stayed on as one of Trump's personal lawyers even after the probe finished in March 2019 and no charges were brought against the president. He was notably active in what was called a back channel between Trump and authorities in Ukraine. Giuliani was said to have been trying to get Ukraine to start a corruption probe on Joe Biden, one of Trump's political opponents. In September 2019, when it became known that a whistle-blower had submitted a complaint about the president's behavior toward Ukraine, Trump, Giuliani, and others came under a lot of criticism. Later that month, the House started an impeachment probe into Trump, and there were legal problems about what Giuliani had done. During the House hearings, Giuliani was shown to be a key player in the scandal, and Trump was impeached in December. But the Senate cleared him of all charges the next February.