Ex-NY Mayor Giuliani Has Pneumonia, Remains in Critical Condition, Spokesman Says

Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor who became the face of the city’s response to the September 11 attacks, remained in critical condition as he recovered from pneumonia, according to a spokesman.

Giuliani, 81, a one-time close ally of US President Donald Trump, has been removed from a mechanical ventilator and is now breathing on his own, spokesman Ted Goodman said on X. Goodman did not say where the former mayor — once dubbed “America’s mayor” after the September 11 attacks — is being treated or when he was admitted to hospital.

Goodman connected Giuliani’s illness to his response to the 2001 attacks, when hijacked planes struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, killing thousands.

He said Giuliani rushed to the Twin Towers that day to assist people in the aftermath, inhaling the toxic air that blanketed New York and later developing what Goodman described as restrictive airway disease.

Goodman said Giuliani’s pneumonia diagnosis had not previously been made public.

He offered no further information about Giuliani’s condition or treatment plans, saying only that family members were by his side and asking the public to pray.

The New York Times reported that Giuliani was hospitalised in Florida.

Giuliani rose to national prominence after 9/11. Earlier in his career, he built a reputation as a hard-charging prosecutor who used racketeering laws aggressively to dismantle New York’s Mafia families.

In recent years, however, Giuliani’s public standing has suffered a dramatic collapse, including in 2023, when a federal jury ordered him to pay $148 million to two election workers. He was found liable for defaming them after falsely linking them to alleged fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

A Republican, Giuliani became one of Trump’s most outspoken defenders and joined his personal legal team during the president’s first term in the White House.

In 2019, he drew scrutiny from the Manhattan US attorney’s office over activities tied to investigations involving Ukraine and apparent efforts to uncover damaging information about Trump’s Democratic rival, Joe Biden.

Giuliani also played a central role in the push to overturn his client’s 2020 election loss to Biden. Yet, one after another, the post-election court challenges were either withdrawn or dismissed as groundless.

He has since been disbarred in New York and Washington.

Giuliani had been facing criminal charges in Arizona linked to the 2020 election, along with other legal troubles, when Trump granted him a sweeping pardon last November.

Trump praised Giuliani as a “true warrior” and the best mayor New York had ever had.

“What a tragedy that he was treated so badly by the Radical Left Lunatics, Democrats ALL – AND HE WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING!” Trump added.

“They cheated on the Elections, fabricated hundreds of stories, did anything possible to destroy our Nation, and now, look at Rudy. So sad!”