When the Trump administration began four years ago, key advisers like Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller, and Jared Kushner drove liberals out of their gourds.
As President Donald Trump left office, Rudy Giuliani, his most trusted lawyer, became the object of their contempt.
That’s because Giuliani defended Trump’s first impeachment case, spent countless hours and frequent-flyer miles trying the unearth Biden family scandals in Ukraine (with the aid of helpers from Boca Raton), and led the charge in alleging voting irregularities in the 2020 election.
To liberals, he thus became part super-villain and part super-buffoon.
But for all his faults and all the insults directed his way, Rudy remains somewhat popular in one sphere – New York, whose biggest city Rudy once served as the top federal prosecutor and later as mayor for two terms, including on 9/11.
On Tuesday Sienna College released a poll reflecting New Yorkers’ views on COIVD-19, investigating Trump after he left office, and the popularity of individual pols.
On the latter point, President Joe Biden (62 percent) and Gov. Andrew Cuomo (57 percent) ranked near the top in terms of favorability rating. Trump, not surprisingly, was near the bottom.
But Rudy, who was New York’s first Republican mayor in a quarter-century when he was first elected in 1994, was not the worst of the bunch.
True, he polled at a not-great 32 percent, with a 56 percent unfavorability score.
But the plus side of his ledger was two percentage points ahead of Trump, and close to that of the darling of the progressives, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (38 percent).
Moreover, Rudy outpolled New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (just 28 percent), who was briefly a Democratic presidential contender in 2020.
As The New York Post put it, “Even Rudy Giuliani is more popular with New Yorkers at the moment than Bill de Blasio.”
According to the Post, de Blasio’s star in his own community has plummeted because of his draconian COIVD-19 lockdown policies, his support for defunding police as Black Lives Matter and Antifa rioters trashed the city, his wasteful spending – including $2 million just to support his wife’s personal staff – and other issues where he has failed to deliver.
Fox News reported last August that 170,000 people had signed a petition trying to get de Blasio recalled before his term expires next year.
Perhaps people in New York recall the old Rudy, who slashed crime rates, improved quality of life, and made NYC a tourist destination again.