Rudy Giuliani was not a fan of Beyoncé's performance at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards.
On Monday's Fox & Friends, co-host Ainsley Earhardt asked the former New York City mayor for his opinion, showing him a clip from the performance and explaining its political undertones. "Her dancers were circling around her and one by one, they fell to the ground, and there were red lights underneath them," said Earnhardt, "and that was supposed to symbolize cops killing black individuals..."
"You're asking the wrong person," Giuliani began. "Because I have five uncles who were police officers, two cousins who were, one who died in the line of duty. I ran the largest and best police department in the world, the New York City Police Department, and I saved more black lives than any of those people you saw on stage by reducing crime and particularly homicide by 75 percent...of which, maybe for or five thousand were African-American young people who are alive today because of the policies I put in effect that weren't in effect for 35 years."
Giuliani went on to highlight some of his work in different neighborhoods of New York, crediting his mayoral policies for helping to shape the "thriving communit[ies]" that make up the Big Apple today.
Fox & Friends' Brian Kilmeade tried to bring the conversation back around to Beyoncé, calling her "an extremely popular and powerful performer." He added, however, "When when she does stuff like that [her VMAs performance], that message to the next generation is pretty indelible."
Giuliani seemed to agree. "It's a shame," he responded. "It's a shame."