Pro: "On abortion, this is a matter of deep and profound judgment. It's a matter of morals. It's a matter of your interpretation of how laws should operate, your interpretation of how respect for the rights of others should operate... Here are the two strong beliefs that I have, and the two pillars of my thinking that always inform my judgments about this. One is I believe abortion is wrong. I think it is morally wrong and if I were asked my advice by someone who is considering an abortion, I would tell them not to have an abortion, to have the child... The second pillar that guides my thinking on this is, in a country like ours, where people of good faith, people who are equally decent, equally moral and equally religious, when they come to different conclusions about this... I believe you have to respect their viewpoint and give them a level of choice here... Therefore I would grant women the right to make that choice."
Speech at Houston Baptist University, May 11, 2007
None Found: No position found as of Jan. 29, 2008. ProCon.org also emailed the Giuliani campaign on Jan. 21, 2008 with this question. They did not respond to our email.
Not Clearly Pro or Con: "U.S. relations with China and Russia will remain complex for the foreseeable future. Americans have no wish to return to the tensions of the Cold War or to launch a new one. We must seek common ground without turning a blind eye to our differences with these two countries. Like America, they have a fundamental stake in the health of the international system. But too often, their governments act shortsightedly, undermining their long-term interest in international norms for the sake of near-term gains. Even as we work with these countries on economic and security issues, the U.S. government should not be silent about their unhelpful behavior or human rights abuses. Washington should also make clear that only if China and Russia move toward democracy, civil liberties, and an open and uncorrupted economy will they benefit from the vast possibilities available in the world today."
"Toward a Realistic Peace: Defending Civilization and Defeating Terrorists by Making the International System Work," Foreign Affairs, Sep./Oct. 2007
Not Clearly Pro or Con: "U.S. relations with China and Russia will remain complex for the foreseeable future. Americans have no wish to return to the tensions of the Cold War or to launch a new one. We must seek common ground without turning a blind eye to our differences with these two countries. Like America, they have a fundamental stake in the health of the international system. But too often, their governments act shortsightedly, undermining their long-term interest in international norms for the sake of near-term gains. Even as we work with these countries on economic and security issues, the U.S. government should not be silent about their unhelpful behavior or human rights abuses. Washington should also make clear that only if China and Russia move toward democracy, civil liberties, and an open and uncorrupted economy will they benefit from the vast possibilities available in the world today."
"Toward a Realistic Peace: Defending Civilization and Defeating Terrorists by Making the International System Work," Foreign Affairs, Sep./Oct. 2007
Pro: "If there were a conservative litmus test for the Cuban exile community, Giuliani would have aced it.
He vowed to maintain the embargo and travel restrictions on visiting the island, and he railed against Castro. When Castro visited New York City in 1995 for the 50th anniversary of the United Nations, Giuliani, then the city's mayor, explicitly excluded him from a banquet of world leaders."
"Giuliani Visits Hialeah, Courts Exiles," Miami Herald, June 22, 2007
Pro: "[Audience Questioner]: If elected could you commit the U.S.'s fair share of the U.N. [United Nations]/A.U. [African Union] Peacekeeping Forces, which is a fourth of that cost? [Rudy Giuliani]: I would commit to America playing not only its fair share, but America playing a bigger role in ending the genocide in Darfur... We should play a role in it and we should play the biggest role because we are the biggest power in the world."
"Rudy Talks About the Darfur Crisis in Cedar Rapids," YouTube video of C-SPAN coverage of presidential campaigns, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, July 19, 2007
Pro: "When you commit treason against the United States of America, particularly at a time when the U.S. is in peril of attack and further attack, I believe the death penalty is the appropriate remedy to consider."
"Giuliani: Consider Death Penalty for American Taliban Fighter," CNN.com, Dec. 17, 2001
Not Clearly Pro or Con: "Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani told voters worried about job losses and outsourcing that burdensome taxes and regulations are to blame rather than corporate greed. Speaking at a VFW hall, the former New York mayor disagreed with a woman who said she blames greedy CEOs for the outsourcing of jobs to other countries. Businesses have a right to make a profit, he said.
'I think outsourcing is a function of being anticompetitive,' he said.
The solution, he said, is lifting some regulations on businesses and lowering the corporate tax rate.
'If we right now lowered the corporate tax from 35 to 28 percent you'd stop a lot of outsourcing like that,' he said. 'All of sudden the incentive to do business in this country would go up.'"
Not Clearly Pro or Con: "Aggressively Advance Free Trade: Rudy will tear down the walls to free trade and create new markets for American-made products. He will protect America's innovations and intellectual property by enforcing our trade agreements aggressively.
* Reduce corporate tax rates and regulatory burden so that Americans can better compete in the global economy.
* Reform the excesses of Sarbanes-Oxley that are driving our corporations overseas to list on foreign exchanges.
* Reenact the Presidential Fast-Track Trade Promotion Authority and complete the Doha Development Round."
"Expanding Our Involvement in the Global Economy," Press Release, Rudy Giuliani's official candidate website, July 11, 2007
Con: "It seems to me the thing that's wrong right at the core of No Child Left Behind is the enforcer of standards should not be the bureaucrat in Washington or on the board of education. It should be the parent. We should have choice. We should empower parents. They should decide -- private school, parochial school, public school, charter school, home school.
That will give the parents the kind of control over their children's education. They understand their children better. Why should a government bureaucrat be sending 168,000 children to failing schools when parents think they can do better for their children? I think it's the single biggest civil rights issue that we face in the 21st century."
Republican Presidential Debate, Orlando, Florida, hosted by FOX News, Oct. 21, 2007
None Found: No position found as of Nov. 16, 2007. ProCon.org also emailed the Giuliani campaign on Nov. 9, 2007 with this question. They did not respond to our email or follow up call.
Not Clearly Pro or Con: "I support this Supreme Court decision [Federal Election Commission (FEC) v. Wisconsin Right to Life Inc., June 25, 2007, ruling favors first ammendment rights of free speech, i.e. political ads or financial contributions, over FEC regulations.] which is a welcome victory for free speech and personal liberty. The ruling protects freedom to participate in the electoral process and recognizes political free speech is the foundation of our First Amendment rights."
"More on WRTL: Reaction Roundup," The New York Sun online, June 25, 2007
[Editor's Note: Prior to Rudy Giuliani's June 25, 2007 Not Clearly Pro or Con position above, he has also expressed a Pro position as indicated by his Feb. 6, 2000 statement on CNN's Late Edition With Wolf Blitzer]
Pro: "I'm a very, very strong supporter of campaign finance reform. A very strong supporter of McCain-Feingold for a long, long time now."
Late Edition With Wolf Blitzer, CNN.com, Feb. 6, 2000
None Found: No position found as of Nov. 16, 2007. ProCon.org also emailed the Giuliani campaign on Nov. 9, 2007 with this question. They did not respond to our email or follow up call.
Not Clearly Pro or Con: "Besides expanding nuclear power and renewable fuels like ethanol, Giuliani also called for more clean coal technologies, more clean-burning natural gas, environmentally safe drilling for oil and natural gas in North America and new technologies like hybrid cars and hydrogen fuel cells."
"Giuliani Talks Energy, Firm's Ties to Oil Industry," USA Today (Associated Press article), July 19, 2007
Not Clearly Pro or Con: "America's government, corporations, and individuals must engage in efficiency and conservation efforts that reduce demand for oil, without damaging America's competitiveness worldwide or our standard of living. We need to use more energy-efficient technologies and take personal responsibility for conserving energy. Every gallon of gas and any electricity we do not use is energy we do not import and pollution we reduce."
"Rudy's Plan to Move Toward Energy Independence," Press Release, Rudy Giuliani's official candidate website, July 18, 2007
[Editor's Note: Prior to Rudy Giuliani's July 18, 2007 Not Clearly Pro or Con position above, he has also expressed a Con position as indicated by his July 10, 2007 statement during a campaign speech in New Hampshire.]
Con: "I don't like mandates, I don't think mandates generally work. I think mandates are kind of inconsistent with the kind of economy we have."
Speaking during campaign event in Manchester, New Hampshire, YouTube.com, July 10, 2007
Pro: "Whatever your scientific conclusion about global warming, whether it's manmade or it isn't or whatever, the reality is that if you don't have--if you don't have restrictions on China, if you don't have restrictions on India, our contribution, ultimately, is going to be minor. We could put all these restrictions on ourselves and have just as much arguable global warming if China, India, some of these other countries that are going to be contributing a lot more to this don't become part of some kind of system to create alternatives."
"Interview with Rudy Giuliani," Kudlow & Company, RealClearPolitics.com Mar. 26, 2007
Not Clearly Pro or Con: "[W]e have to be very aggressive about enforcing the gun laws that exist...
As far as that's concerned, what I believe is, the Second Amendment gives people an individual right to keep and to bear arms. Government can impose reasonable regulations...
Generally, those reasonable regulations would be about criminal background, background of mental instability, basically the ones that are outlined in the opinion of the judge who wrote the Parker decision, Judge Silverman. And if those regulations go beyond that, then those are unconstitutional.
I think states can have a little bit of leeway. New York could have a somewhat stricter rule than, let's say, Kentucky. Texas might have different rules than Ohio. But generally, you've got to comply with this rule...
And people will be allowed to have guns. I'm not going to interfere with that. Generally, decisions are going to be made on a state basis. And they're going to have to comply with the Constitution."
Republican Presidential Debate, St. Petersburg, Florida, hosted by CNN and YouTube.com, Nov. 28, 2007
Con: "If we want the kind of results they have in England or France or Canada or Cuba, like Michael Moore wants us to do, then we should go in that direction. But that would be a terrible thing to do. What we should do is increase the number of people who have private insurance. In order to do that, we should give them a major tax deduction, $15,000, let them have a health savings account as part of that. They'll have an incentive to own their own health insurance. That's the thing that's wrong with the market here. It is not really good to move this thing in terms of more government control of health care."
Republican Presidential Debate, hosted by ABC News, Aug. 5, 2007
Pro: "I think importation from foreign countries is good if its heavily regulated. In that particular case you have to be sure the country you are getting them from has the same standards that we have. Otherwise you run the risk... that you are getting inferior medicines, fraudulent medicines... If you do that you'd have to make sure that it was allowed from countries that had roughly the same standards that we have for verifying that medicines are correct... Right now most countries don't have those standards. But if they did that would be an acceptable way to do it."
"Join 'Conversation' with Rudy Giuliani," WMUR-TV (ABC), thebostonchannel.com, July 20, 2007
None Found: No position found as of Jan. 22, 2008. ProCon.org also emailed the Giuliani campaign on Jan. 21, 2008 with this question. They did not respond to our email.
Not Clearly Pro or Con: "And finally, with regard to the people that are already here, somebody who's already here should not get ahead of somebody who legally is here. If anybody is here illegally, they should never get to be put ahead of a line of people that are here legally. They should have to pay a penalty, because there should not be amnesty. It's a civil wrong. Civil wrongs are compensated by paying penalties. They should pay the back taxes. And if you ultimately find a way to make them citizens, then there should be a very, very strong requirement that they speak English, read English, write English, and understand American history. And that's, I think, I think that's a solution we can probably get to before the 2008 election."
"Giuliani Sidesteps Whether Illegals Should Get Citizenship Without First Leaving U.S.," ABC News, Mar. 23, 2007
[Editor's Note: Prior to Rudy Giuliani's Mar. 23, 2007 Not Clearly Pro or Con position above, his position was Pro illegal immigrant rights and benefits as indicated in his Oct. 13, 1996 statement below.]
Pro: "For those who may not know, 'Executive Order 124' is New York City's policy regarding undocumented immigrants. This order was issued seven years ago by Mayor Ed Koch and then later reissued by Mayor Dinkins and then by me. 'Executive Order 124' protects undocumented immigrants in New York City from being reported to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service while they are using City services that are crucial for their health and safety, and critical for the health and safety of the entire city.
I know 'Executive Order 124' offends some people. They ask, 'Why should we pay to provide services for illegal immigrants?' The answer is, 'It's not only to protect them, but to protect the rest of society, as well.'
New York City is defending 'Executive Order 124' in court because there are times when undocumented immigrants must have a degree of protection in order to avail themselves of crucial services. For example, parents fearful of being deported may not send their children to public schools. If they don't, a potential 60,000, 70,000, 80,000 undocumented children could remain hidden in apartments or be turned out in the streets. Not only would these children suffer irreversible damage, they could end up doing damage to the rest of society as well.
Similarly, illegal and undocumented immigrants should be able to seek medical help without the threat of being reported, possibly deported. While these people are sick, they're just as sick and just as contagious as citizens. They could possibly become a danger to public health if they were not able to seek health care services."
"Archives of Rudolph W. Giuliani: Mayor's Message," City of New York Government website, Oct. 13, 1996
Pro: "Congress authorized the construction of 700 miles of border fence in 2006 and then appropriated over $1.1 billion for border security. However, Washington has only built a few dozen miles of fence. Rudy will commit to building the fence - both physical and high-tech - now, while deploying and maintaining 20,000 Border Patrol agents and measuring their progress toward ending illegal immigration. It is important to accomplish this goal in order to preserve and expand legal immigration."
Not Clearly Pro or Con: "MR. [Tim] RUSSERT: Doesn't this [2007 National Intelligence Estimate] remove the option of a pre-emptive military strike against Iran?
MR. [Rudy] GIULIANI: No, I, I don't think it does. I think, I think you always leave open the military option in a situation... So our, our-the option of this government should be that we don't take any options off the table, and we keep the pressure on them... And of course we don't, we don't want to use the military option. It would be dangerous; it would be risky. But I think it would be more dangerous and more risky if Iran did become a nuclear power. We should utilize sanctions. We should utilize as much pressure as we're capable of. But the fact that that is there, that military option is there, not taken off the table ultimately increases the pressure, doesn't it? The reality is the pressure works...
2003, all the pressure was there and the military option was on the table, and they stopped. Why would we now take it off the table?... I believe what I just said and have said consistently, that military options should not be taken off the table. It could be a big mistake to do that, but that that should be an option that would be even thought about only as a last resort... But I don't think the military option is the thing that we want. I mean, that isn't the thing that we, we, we want to get to if we don't have to. Again, we would only get to it if it was a last resort and under this kind of an analysis."
Meet the Press with Tim Russert, NBC, Dec. 9, 2007
Con: "[Tom] FAHEY: Mayor Giuliani, same question to you. Knowing what you know right now, was it a good decision [2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq]?
RUDY GIULIANI: Absolutely the right thing to do. It's unthinkable that you would leave Saddam Hussein in charge of Iraq and be able to fight the war on terror. And the problem is that we see Iraq in a vacuum. Iraq should not be seen in a vacuum. Iraq is part of the overall terrorist war against the United States."
Republican Presidential Debate, Saint Anselm College Manchester, New Hampshire, hosted by CNN, WMURTV and The New Hampshire Union Leader, June 5, 2007
Pro: "The fact that they are engaging our military there [Iraq], I believe is helping to keep us safe here. I think that if we had not done that, if we had not done Afghanistan and Iraq, there is no way of knowing, but, we gotta look at the results. Everybody on September 11, September 12, September 13, thought we'd be attacked many times after that [Sep. 11, 2001]. Not only did everyone think that, everybody told me that... If they hadn't made those sacrifices [U.S. Military invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq] I believe we'd be in much greater danger than we are."
"Rudy on Iraq," Speech in New Hampshire, Aug. 17, 2007
Con: "For now-I, I don't think you put it-when has any country ever won a war with great pressure for time limits placed on the military while you are engaged in that war? I think there's been a counterproductive thing done here that-if we had gone into any war with, you know, 'You've got a year to do this, you got two years to do this, otherwise we're going to give the enemy a timetable of our retreat,' you almost can't succeed in that war. The enemy even figures out you can't succeed, and they outlast you. So I think you have to say, and I think we should learn that from this experience we've gone through, where we've seen a lot of Democrats, like, in three or four different positions on this. I think we should learn from this that we should set a strategic objective, and we should support that strategic objective. When it becomes obvious to the military that we can't succeed, or our review of it, then we shouldn't. But as long as there's a chance, we should support achieving that objective."
Meet the Press with Tim Russert, NBC, Dec. 9, 2007
Not Clearly Pro or Con: "Hamas is a brutal terrorist group that murders the citizens of our ally Israel, and also has a significant role in the worldwide jihadist network of terrorists waging war on us."
"Immediate Threats: Remain on Offense Against the Terrorists," Press Release, Rudy Giuliani's official candidate website (accessed Jan. 8, 2008)
Not Clearly Pro or Con: "[Katie] Couric: Harry Truman once said, 'A man not honorable in his marital relations is not usually honorable in any other.' Some people say they don't feel comfortable supporting someone who has not remained faithful to his or her spouse. Can you understand their reservations?
[Rudy] Giuliani: Sure, I can. Absolutely. You know, they look at every single part of us. And the ... only thing I can say to people is I'm not perfect, you know? And I've made mistakes in my life. And that ... not just in that area. In other areas and I try to learn from it. I try to -- I feel sorry about them. I try to learn from them so I don't repeat them.
Sometimes I even repeat them and ... you try again. I mean, you ... so -- I have a, maybe a more generous view of human beings and a more generous view of life. I mean, it comes from growing up as a Catholic. I mean, we're all sinners. We're all struggling. We're all trying hard. We ask for forgiveness, and then we try to improve ourselves again. And I've -- relate to other people that way. Relate to the world that way."
"Candidates Offer Views on Infidelity," CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, CBSNews.com, Dec. 19, 2007
Not Clearly Pro or Con: "MAYOR GIULIANI: 'I believe that marriage is something that should be between a man and a woman and that the way to handle this, and the way to handle respect and everything else is to have something like domestic partnership, which I support.'
LARRY KING: 'Would you favor a constitutional amendment saying marriage is a man and a woman?'
MAYOR GIULIANI: 'Not if it remains the way it is now. Unless all of a sudden lots of states do what Massachusetts does and kind of come at it from the other side and decide that the Constitution says that - that you cannot have marriage between a man and a woman...'"
Con: "I believe the effort to try and make marijuana available for medical uses is really a way to legalize it. There's no reason for it. You can accomplish everything you want to accomplish with things other than marijuana, probably better. There are pain medications much superior to marijuana. We'd be much better off telling people the truth. Marijuana adds nothing to the array of legal medications and prescription medications that are available for pain relief."
"Giuliani Rejects Medical Marijuana Use," FOXNews.com, July 10, 2007
Not Clearly Pro or Con: "I've never said that I'm going to raid anybody. The question I was asked was, would I be in favor of legalizing marijuana for the purpose of medical treatment. I've checked with the FDA, and the FDA are experts on this, not me, and the FDA takes the position that we shouldn't do that... And the reality is the FDA says that there are more than enough alternatives to marijuana, that it would be not advisable to make marijuana legal, and if the FDA took a different position, maybe I would then rethink it."
Speaking at a town hall meeting in Windham, New Hampshire, YouTube.com, Oct. 3, 2007
None Found: No position found as of Jan. 8, 2008. ProCon.org also emailed the Giuliani campaign on Dec. 13, 2007 with this question. They did not respond to our email.
Con: "This is not the time to deal with disruptive issues like this [gays in the military]. Back in 1994 we went through this. And it created a tremendous amount of disruption. Colin Powell, I think, was still the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff before he left at the beginning of the Clinton administration. He came to the view that this was a good policy.
And I think in time of war, in a time where we're trying to deal with this transition to a new kind of warfare that we have to be fighting -- and we haven't gotten all the way there yet. We need a hybrid army, we need to look at nation-building as part of what we have to teach our military. I don't think this would be the right time to raise these issues...
And I think we should rely on the judgment of our commanders in a situation like this. They know what's disruptive and what's not. And at a time of war, you don't make fundamental changes like this [allow openly gay people to serve in the military]."
Republican Presidential Debate, Saint Anselm College Manchester, New Hampshire, hosted by CNN, WMURTV and The New Hampshire Union Leader, June 5, 2007
Pro: "Build Partnerships With Faith-Based Organizations: Rudy will help focus the work of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, directing the program to promote organizations uniquely prepared to provide the necessary assistance to women who choose adoption."
Pro: "I think the reality is that we have to deal with Social Security.
The first thing we have to do is get a consensus behind private accounts if we're going to change it...
And the fact is, Medicare and Medicaid and presently more expensive than Social Security...
So I think in both cases, if you start to establish a private market, you're going to be able to figure out how to solve these things within costs that are sustainable."
Republican Presidential Debate, Orlando, Florida, hosted by Fox News and the Republican Party of Florida, Oct. 21, 2007
Pro: "As long as we're not creating life in order to destroy it, as long as we're not having human cloning, and we limit it to that, and there is plenty of opportunity to then use federal funds in those situations where you have limitations.
So I would support it with those limitations, like Senator Coleman's bill in Congress."
Republican Presidential Debate, Simi Valley, California, hosted by MSNBC, May 3, 2007
Pro: "Our nation is facing a looming tax crisis caused by the scheduled expiration of the Bush tax cuts beginning in 2010, the ever-widening reach of the Alternative Minimum Tax, and the effects of real bracket creep.
If I'm elected President, I'll keep the tax cuts - or their equivalent - in place. And we'll enact additional tax relief.
We need to keep America competitive in the global marketplace. That's why we'll ensure lower corporate tax rates to solidify a strong economy and protect American jobs."
"Rudy Giuliani: Lower Tax Rates Will Help All Americans," Rudy Giuliani's official candidate website (accessed Dec. 19, 2007)
Pro: "Propose a Constitutional Amendment Establishing a Presidential Line-Item Veto: A constitutional line-item veto would allow the President to fight for the national interest by cutting wasteful special interest programs without contributing to gridlock by vetoing an otherwise sound bill."
Con: "I don't think we should close Guantanamo. I think it should stay open. The only caveat I can give, and the only place where I would be at a slight disadvantage, is that I've never gone and looked at it--I haven't had a chance to go look at it. If I looked at it and came to the conclusion that it was as bad as some people claim, then I would say 'close it.' I don't think that that's the case. I think it's been grossly exaggerated, and many of the reports that I see are that it's not terribly different from any other prisons. I ran the prison system, so I know prisons."
"'Do We Remain on Offense?'," Interview with the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board, June 30, 2007
Pro: "MR. GIULIANI: In the hypothetical that you gave me, which assumes that we know there's going to be another attack and these people know about it, I would tell the people who had to do the interrogation to use every method they could think of. It shouldn't be torture, but every method they can think of --
MR. [Brit] HUME: Water-boarding?
MR. GIULIANI: -- and I would -- and I would -- well, I'd say every method they could think of, and I would support them in doing that because I've seen what -- (interrupted by applause) -- I've seen what can happen when you make a mistake about this, and I don't want to see another 3,000 people dead in New York or any place else."
Republican Presidential Debate, Columbia, South Carolina, hosted by FOX News, May 15, 2007
Member of the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group for two months until he quit, after failing to report to any official meetings (Giuliani's financial records show that he was making paid public appearances on the dates of the Study Group's meetings), Apr.-May 2006
Mayor of New York City, 1994-2001
Appointed US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, 1983
Named Associate Attorney General, 1981
Appointed Associate Deputy Attorney General and chief of staff to the Deputy Attorney General, 1975
Education:
JD, New York University Law School, 1968
BA, Manhattan College, 1965
Affiliations and Memberships:
Became a name partner in the law firm of Bracewell & Giuliani, 2005
Established Giuliani Partners, consulting firm in the fields of emergency preparedness, public safety, crisis management, energy and health care, 2002
Other:
Married three times, twice divorced
As Associate Deputy Attorney General, his first high-profile prosecution was of U.S. Representative Bertram L. Podell (NY-13), who was convicted of corruption
As U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, he indicted eleven organized crime figures, including the heads of New York's so-called "Five Families", under the RICO Act on charges including extortion, labor racketeering, and murder for hire
Contact Information:
Campaign:
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