Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said that while he is voting for Donald Trump, he is not endorsing him because he doesn’t know his campaign staff.
In an interview with Chris Cuomo on CNN’s “New Day” on Tuesday, Giuliani said the “difference is joining the campaign.”
“I’m voting for them, I’ll do whatever they would like me to do, but I’m not part of the campaign apparatus,” he said. “I don’t speak for the campaign.” (RELATED: Rudy Announces He’s Voting For Trump)
“When I endorse somebody, I join their campaign,” Giuliani continued. “I join their campaign staff, their campaign staff sends me out to do speeches and to do things like that. Donald is a very, very good friend. I believe he’d be the best candidate. I think he’d be the person I would like to see win. I don’t know his campaign staff. I don’t know who they are.”
“Why don’t you go the full Christie?” Cuomo asked.
“Because I don’t know his campaign staff, and maybe Christie does,” Giuliani said. “I’m voting for Donald Trump, I’m urging other people to vote for Donald Trump, but I’m not joining the campaign in any way, because I don’t know the campaign. I don’t know what apparatus is there. I don’t know who the people are.”
Cuomo asked if Giuliani had any concerns with Trump and America’s mayor replied, “Sure, yeah. I mean, I agree with Donald probably on 8 out of 10 positions, which is good enough for me. That’s what I agreed with Ronald Reagan on, and he was my hero. But I have a couple of concerns on immigration. There are things I’d have to talk out first before I would go as far as an endorsement.”
Giuliani went on to explain some of his concerns he has with Trump claiming, “I have concerns on the buildup of the military. I’d like to hear more about how he’s hopefully going to double the size of the Navy, increase the size of the United States military, put more troops in NATO in order to push Putin back a bit.”
“Look, I’m a very conservative Republican on foreign policy. On domestic policy, social issues I tend to be moderate. Some Republicans even think I’m liberal. But on foreign policy and economic policy, I’m very conservative,” Giuliani said. Noting, “I haven’t heard a lot on how much are we going to build up this military” from Trump.
“For example, we need to double the size of our Navy to push China back in the South China Sea. I like the idea that Donald wants to conduct economic competition with China. I think that’s very, very smart. One of the few people talking about it, one of the few people who understands it, but you need to couple that with a very, very strong Navy, with a two ocean Navy that pushes back the militaristic instincts in China,” Giuliani said.