Giuliani: �We had no domestic attacks under Bush�

By David Edwards and John Byrne
Friday, January 8th, 2010 -- 9:14 am

UPDATE: ABC's George Stephanopoulos has taken responsibility for not challenging former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani on the mayor's assertion on Good Morning America Friday that "we had no domestic attacks under Bush."

As noted below, a Giuliani spokesman "clarified" the mayor's statement later in the day, arguing that the mayor meant no attacks after 9/11.

"Whatever the mayor meant, it’s not what he said," Stephanopoulos wrote on his ABC blog. "All of you who have pointed out that I should have pressed him on that misstatement in the moment are right. My mistake, my responsibility."

Original story follows below

The former New York City mayor who has sometimes been mocked for using "a noun, a verb and 9/11" in stump speeches appears to have forgotten -- or has mentally reclassified -- the worst terrorist attack on American soil. "We had no domestic attacks under Bush," Rudy Giuliani told ABC's George Stephanopoulos Friday.

Even if Giuliani doesn't consider the attacks on 9/11 a "domestic" attack then surely he forgot about the anthrax attacks of 2001 or an Egyptian national who attacked the El Al ticket counter at Los Angeles International Airport in 2002.

While ABC's George Stephanopolous let Giuliani get away with his misstatement both during the interview and on his blog, ABC's Jake Tapper called the former mayor out. "Giuliani's comments that there were zero terrorist attacks under Bush, 1 under Obama, is false no matter how you slice it," tweeted Tapper.

A spokesman for Giuliani attempted to clarify his remarks.

A spokesman for the former Mayor clarifies, saying that the remark “didn't come across as it was intended” and that he was “clearly talking post-9/11 with regards to Islamic terrorist attacks on our soil.”

By “on our soil,” the former mayor is not including either Umar Farouq Abdulmutallab’s failed Christmas Day attack or Richard Reid’s December 22, 2001 attempt to blow up American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami.

So the spokesman says that the “one” attack that Giuliani says took place during the Obama administration was a reference to the alleged Fort Hood shooter, Major Nidal Hasan.

Giuliani's remark came amidst a jeremiad against President Barack Obama's handling of the Christmas day Detroit airliner bombing suspect and appears at about 3:21 in the below clip.

The remainder of the article and video can be found at:

http://rawstory.com/2010/01/giuliani-no-domestic-attacks-under-bush/