WASHINGTON — A new Rasmussen poll shows that over 60 percent of Republican voters agree with former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s remarks about President Barack Obama’s lack of love for the country.
American voters “overwhelmingly say they love” the United States, but one out of three likely voters do not think President Obama feels the same way.
Rasmussen also reports that 62 percent of Republican voters do not believe Obama loves the United States. However, 77 percent of Democrats and 48 percent of unaffiliated voters affirmed Obama’s love of country. Additionally, the poll notes that most Republicans and unaffiliated voters “view Giuliani favorably; most Democrats do not.”
Giuliani drew criticism last week when he made his remarks at a New York City Republican donor dinner centered around Wisconsin GOP Gov. Scott Walker.
“I do not believe that the president loves America,” Giuliani said. “He doesn’t love you. And he doesn’t love me. He wasn’t brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up through love of this country.”
The former mayor later clarified his remarks in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, “My blunt language suggesting that the president doesn’t love America notwithstanding, I didn’t intend to question President Obama’s motives or the content of his heart.”
“My intended focus really was the effect his words and his actions have on the morale of the country, and how that effect may damage his performance,” he added.
Conservatives, like academic scholar Thomas Sowell, defended Giuliani. In a recent column Sowell wrote, “We need to keep that in mind for the next president, and for all future presidents. We might have been better off if the question of Obama’s patriotism had been raised before he was first elected. Never should we ignore so many red flag warnings again.”