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'You’re a f**king scumbag': Rudy Giuliani slapped on back inside supermarket over abortion ruling

The incident comes two days after the Supreme Court reversed the longstanding legal precedent established in Roe v Wade

Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor, got slapped on the back at a grocery store on Staten Island on Sunday, June 26. This incident comes after the Supreme Court's ruling overturning abortion rights in the US.

A former attorney and adviser for President Donald Trump, Giuliani was campaigning for his son, Andrew Giuliani, who is in a Republican primary race for governor. The 39-year-old suspect, an employee at the store, approached Giuliani from behind and slapped him on the back at a ShopRite in the Charleston section of Staten Island around 3.30 pm. The attacker was soon taken into custody by the police. 

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The ShopRite worker, identified as Daniel Gill, got released on Monday, June 27, after his charges were downgraded to third-degree assault, third-degree menacing, and second-degree harassment. Gill was initially charged with second-degree assault involving a person over age 65. As reported by NY Post, Gill’s defense attorney, Susan Platis, said, “It appears to be a tap on the back and not a slap. This is not criminal contact, it is very unlikely that the touch could have caused any injury. So to call this assault in the third, or even menacing, is a stretch.”

Meanwhile, Giuliani refused medical attention at the scene. Narrating the scene, the 78-year-old told NY Post, "All of a sudden, I feel this, ‘bam!’ on my back. I don’t know if they helped me not fall down, but I just about fell down, but I didn’t. I feel this tremendous pain in my back, and I’m thinking, what the – I didn’t even know what it was.”

He further said, “All of a sudden, I hear this guy say, ‘you’re a f**king scumbag,' then he moves away so nobody can grab him. He says: 'You, you’re one of the people that’s gonna kill women. You’re gonna kill women. You and your f**king friend are gonna kill women.’ Then he starts telling out all kinds of, just curses... ‘you guys think you’re saving babies, but you’re gonna kill women.’"

As per reports, a witness named Rita Rugova-Johnson was stunned by the attack. She said, "We’re talking, and all of a sudden an employee came out of nowhere and open-handedly slapped him in the back and said, ‘Hey, what’s up scumbag?’"

Post the attack, his son, a gubernatorial candidate, called his dad “tough as nails." “He’s doing fine. But it’s a sad day when New Yorkers’ greatest crime fighter, ‘America’s Mayor,’ is attacked. I blame the left-wing for encouraging violence. This is crazy,” he said.

'That was a pat on the back'

However, the netizen tagged it as "not assaulted". A user wrote, "this is not an assault." Another individual jokingly said, "Slapped on the back? Give me a break. I've slapped mosquitoes harder than that and they survived." The troll continued with another saying, "@RudyGiuliani that was a pat on the back. I really thought you were slapped lol. Like on the face or something."

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