Intelligencer

Dinkins Doubts Rudy’s Run

The former mayor says Giuliani will not prevail.

By Jada Yuan
Published Mar 19, 2007

(Photo: Patrick McMullan)

C ount David Dinkins among Rudy Giuliani’s presidential doubters. At a recent benefit for the Jackie Robinson Foundation, the former mayor said of his successor, “I don’t think he’ll prevail.” Why not? “It may be because folks find out that when [Patrick] Dorismond was killed [he was fatally shot by a plainclothes officer in 2000], Rudy said, ‘Oh, well, he was no altar boy anyhow,’ ” said Dinkins. “Or maybe they’ll find out that crime really started to go down as early as 1991, when I was mayor. And on and on and on.” Dinkins added, “As it is made clear that ‘America’s Mayor’ ”—the quote marks were practically audible—“while he did a great job on September 11, no one can take that from him, that it was he who insisted on building that bunker where he built it [at the WTC], to the detriment of our emergency folks. Like the rest of us, he is imperfect.” So, if not Giuliani, who? “Hillary. There are a whole lot of reasons why I support her, but let’s start with, she campaigned for me. She’s a New Yorker, and she’s a very fine United States senator. I don’t have anything negative to say about Obama. He’s a fine public servant. And I might even predict that one day he may be president. But not now. Not in ’08.”