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American Morning
Giuliani's Good Times, Bad Times
Aired January 01, 2002 - 07:39 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Well, the man at the helm of New York for eight years was Rudy Giuliani. He left office with sky-high approval ratings, but it wasn't always that way.
CNN's Deborah Feyerick looks at a leadership style that has won Giuliani praise and criticism.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Rudy Giuliani was so close to the World Trade Center, that when the first tower came crashing down, the mayor was trapped inside a nearby building. After a frantic search for an exit, a door opened. Giuliani and his team were on the move.
SUNNY MINDEL, GIULIANI COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: It was a major moment for the mayor of the city of New York going up Broadway just like everyone else, collecting people, following him, evacuating.
FORMER MAYOR RUDY GIULIANI (R), NEW YORK: Put your mask on. Put your mask on.
FEYERICK: That image, a mayor leading New Yorkers to safety, summed up everything he had worked for over eight years. A powerful police force; the strong emergency management unit ready for action. All of it seemingly geared for this single moment.
GIULIANI: Come with us. Come with us.
FORMER DEPUTY MAYOR JOE LHOTA (R), NEW YORK: Rudy Giuliani loves to deal with the "what ifs," let's create scenarios and let's plan accordingly. So when September 11 came, there never was a huddling around the senior executives within the government to say, "what do we do now?" We all knew what we needed to do.
FEYERICK: That afternoon, Rudy Giuliani stepped into the spotlight. Not as a senate candidate, dropping out of last year's high profile race because of prostate cancer.
Not as a man whose marriage to a TV broadcaster was publicly melting down while he stepped out with a new friend. On September 11, Rudy Giuliani showed himself as a true leader, comforting not only a frightened city, but a frightened nation. GIULIANI: The city of New York and the United States of America is much stronger than any group of barbaric terrorists, that our democracy, that our rule of law, that our strength and our willingness to defend ourselves will ultimately prevail.
FEYERICK: Giuliani's two terms have been filled with extreme highs; crime cut in half; tourists pouring in; a city far better off than before. But his run has also had profound lows. Two racially divisive police shootings, a bitter assault on a museum whose taste in art he disagreed with. Critics accused the mayor of trampling on basic rights by seeing things his way and his way only.
ANDREW KIRTZMAN, AUTHOR, "RUDY GIULIANI: EMPEROR OF THE CITY": The driving force behind Giuliani's approach to government is a feeling of righteousness and a feeling that he has the key to knowledge and the key to keeping the city under control. And it's been his best quality and it's been his worst quality, because it means that he's been immune to pressure.
FEYERICK: Which may explain why Rudy Giuliani has taken on everyone from jay walkers to hot dog vendors. One political insider calling him a "classic wartime leader" who's done such a great job that, ultimately, he ran out of enemies to fight. Critics call him a bully.
ED KOCH, FMR. NEW YORK MAYOR: He showed great insensitivity to people, particularly minorities, and a certain cruelty in his relationships with people. You couldn't be a critic of Giuliani's and remain a friend, social or otherwise.
FEYERICK: That same "I know better" character trait that alienates people also inspires extreme loyalty. Love it or hate it, it seems to be the key to his success.
KIRTZMAN: It's allowed him to drive home things that other mayors could never dream of accomplishing here.
LHOTA: Some people may say that he sets his goals -- you know, sets high goals. The fact of the matter is, he does, and we all follow through because he motivates us to follow through.
FEYERICK: Sunny Mindel is the mayor's communications director.
MINDEL: It is refreshing to work for a person who is so committed to the job and to the city and has the courage of those convictions and is not swayed by polling or an occasional blip in the media landscape.
FEYERICK: The public doesn't often see the gentler Giuliani, a man of great humor, compassion and loyalty will dress up in drag or put off writing his yearend speech to attend a firefighter's funeral.
TOM VON ESSEN, NEW YORK FIRE DEPARTMENT: He rescheduled that speech. That has so many people in awe. And people are all, you know, shaking their heads at, "Oh, my god, we have to reschedule this thing." But that was the kind of commitment that he's had since September 11.
FEYERICK: So why not show this side more often?
PETE POWERS, FMR. DEPUTY MAYOR NEW YORK: People confuse niceness and compassion with weakness very often. So if you go out there trying to act that way, you're not going to be able to accomplish your goals. In order to change New York from what it was to what it became, you had to be tough.
FEYERICK: Tough enough to triumph over profound tragedy.
KIRTZMAN: I think that in this crisis people wanted a father figure. They wanted someone who could tell them that it's OK to cry, it's OK to be scared, but that everything was going to be OK.
FEYERICK (on camera): The mayor likes to say, "Be sure you're doing the right thing, and the rest will follow." Maybe that's why so many people followed him September 11.
Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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