LOVELAND, Colo.—Republican presidential front-runner Rudy Giuliani brought his campaign to Colorado on Saturday, accusing Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton of waffling on Iraq and illegal immigration.
Protesters repeatedly interrupted his appearance at a coffee shop in Loveland, about 40 miles north of Denver. They claimed he knew in advance of the Sept. 11 attacks when he was mayor of New York.
Police led one protester away and the crowd of about 200 repeatedly shouted the others down.
Giuliani said Clinton’s answer to key policy questions is “Maybe yes, maybe no, let me check a poll, let me check another poll.”
“I think the American people are going to want steadiness, they’re going to want focus, they’re going to want someone who has handled a crisis,” he said.
“Colorado needs the kind of president that America needs, one who’s going to be on offense on the war on terror, one that’s going to be realistic in facing Islamic terrorists and one that’s going to lower taxes, not like the Democrats, and not an American president that’s going to give driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants,” he said.
Isaac Baker, a spokesman for Clinton’s campaign, responded that voters want a president who will bring change and end the war in Iraq, “not merely continue George Bush’s failed policies as Mayor Giuliani promises.”
Of the protesters, Giuliani said conspiracy theorists still believe he allowed the terrorist attacks to proceed.
“They have all these theories about somehow America caused Sept. 11. It’s not true, but you’re not going to convince them it’s not true,” Giuliani said.
Giuliani also apologized again for not doing a better job of vetting his former police commissioner, Bernard Kerik, before backing him for a position in President Bush’s Cabinet heading the Homeland Security Department.
A wide-ranging indictment accused him “selling his office” and lying to cover up the scheme. Kerik pleaded not guilty Friday.
“I made a mistake. I apologized for the mistake,” Giuliani said.
He asked voters to look at his record as a whole rather than focus on the Kerik case.
“Look at my entire record about how I turned around New York City. … I must have made some right decisions to take a city that was the crime capital of America and turn it into one of the safest cities in the United States, ” he said.
Randy Fellure, a Loveland businessman who attended Saturday’s event, said he backs Giuliani because he would “take on the tough guys” in a dangerous world.
“I don’t think the other Republicans or the Democrats have what it takes,” he said.
