Republican gubernatorial hopeful Rep. Lee Zeldin added some extra flavor to the final debate of the gubernatorial campaign when he dismissed Andrew Giuliani as a former “Chick-Fil-A” runner at the White House outranked by the Easter Egg Bunny.”
The put down came as the former White House aide and son of former Mayor Rudy Giuliani was grilling Zeldin over past comments about former President Donald Trump.
“This is a guy who a couple of years ago said that President Trump made racist statements and lied to you last night ladies and gentlemen. Unfortunately, he’s going to flip and flop,” Giuliani said while referring to comments Zeldin made on CNN years ago.
Zeldin claimed his remarks were “selectively edited” while taking aim at Giuliani, a former golf pro who has never run for elected office before serving in the Trump White House and running for governor.
“What I was doing in that interview was that I said that ‘President Trump was not a racist’ and this CNN host kept trying to get me to admit to it and I said ‘he’s not a racist.’ And that’s unfortunate,” Zeldin said.
“You said in your definition that he is racist in terms of the comments that he said,” Giuliani snapped back.
Giuliani and Zeldin are locked in a fierce primary race against former Westchester Executive Rob Astorino and businessman Harry Wilson where Zeldin has advantages with polling, fundraising and endorsements, including from the Post Editorial Board.
Primary rivals have attacked Zeldin for months with claims that he is insufficiently conservative.
Those efforts continued Tuesday night at a debate hosted by Newsmax where Giuliani tried to present himself as the candidate most aligned with Trump.
Trump has not endorsed anyone in the race despite ties to Giuliani, Zeldin and Astorino.
“Listen for someone whose claim to fame was that Chris Farley made fun of him on Saturday Night Live for being an obnoxious kid, who ends up becoming more obnoxious and getting kicked off the Duke golf team,” Zeldin said.
The younger Giuliani became famous as a young boy for loudly stealing the limelight when his father was inaugurated as mayor in 1994 – the subject of a famous sketch by Farley.
Giuliani later played golf at Duke University before being cut from the team. He later filed an unsuccessful lawsuit against the school that demanded damages and lifetime use of university golf facilities.
After referencing those episodes in the life of the 36 year-old political newcomer, Zeldin roasted Giuliani as an errand boy for the Trump White House.
“And then you basically get a position as the Chick-Fil-A runner at the White House outranked by the Easter Egg Bunny.”
Former Trump White House spokesman Sean Spicer infamously played the role of the Easter Bunny while former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was the subject of a debunked story about delivering Trump fast food during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Zeldin took one last stab at Giuliani – who has previously claimed he worked on COVID-19 and the opioid epidemic in the White House – before the discussion moved on to other topics during the hour-long slugfest between candidates Tuesday night.
“You should get a job before you run,” Zeldin said of Giuliani.
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