Rudy Giuliani assails Hillary Clinton as the worst Secretary of State 'in a hundred years'

Rudy Giuliani, the former Mayor of New York, has lambasted Hillary Clinton for questioning Donald Trump’s foreign policy credentials calling her “the worst US Secretary of State in a hundred years”.

Speaking exclusively to The Independent, Mr Giuliani, who unsuccessfully ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, said Ms Clinton’s speech in San Diego on Thursday assailing Mr Trump’s foreign policy statements and calling him unfit to be commander-in-chief would boomerang on her because her own record as diplomat-in-chief had been “abysmal”.

“It wasn’t a speech on foreign policy,” Mr Giuliani, who helped New York navigate the horrors of 9/11, the worst foreign attack on US soil since Pearl Harbour, said. “It was a speech attacking Donald Trump.” Ms Clinton was Secretary of State for all of President Barack Obama’s first term.

After implicitly supporting Mr Trump for months, Mr Giuliani endorsed the New York billionaire finally in April when the battle for the Republican Party nomination was still raging. He has repeatedly said, however, that he does not have any formal role in the Trump campaign.

This is the clearest sign yet, however, that Mr Giuliani intends to continue speaking up for Mr Trump as he switches gears to fight the general election against Ms Clinton, if, as expected, she finally emerges as the Democratic Party nominee.

Among Mr Trump’s supporters, his response to her San Diego address, in which she said the Republican was “temperamentally unfit” to be commander-in-chief and “dangerously incoherent” on foreign policy, was the most ferocious. Ms Clinton’s speech also contained the contention that Mr Trump could not be trusted with the nuclear codes.

“If I was Hillary Clinton I would never have given a speech on foreign policy at all,” said Mr Giuliani. He agreed to talk about the topic while attending a black-tie gala at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx which is celebrating its 125th birthday.

“She was the worst Secretary of State in a hundred years. Her record as Secretary of State was abysmal. She let the Middle East fall apart, for instance,” he said, his wife, Judith, at his side.

Some of what Mr Giuliani had to say echoed Mr Trump’s own rebukes of Ms Clinton at a campaign rally on Thursday evening San Jose, California. He called her address, which was widely carried on national television, “pathetic” and also dismissed it as campaign froth. “It had nothing to do with foreign policy,” Mr Trump said.

Mr Giuliani confirmed his support for Mr Trump in an interview in April with CNN. “I'm Rudy Giuliani, I mean a lot in New York politics, I endorse Donald Trump, but I'm not a part of the campaign,“ he said. ”I'm not a part of the campaign apparatus and I don't want people to think I am.”

Both considered New York icons, Mr Trump and Mr Giuliani have been friends for years. In 2010, the former mayor bought a flat in Palm Beach, Florida, where Mr Trump also lives part time, in an apartment in his Mar-a-Lago beachside country club.

In 2000, they raised eyebrows even in liberal New York with a brief skit for an annual political fundraising dinner featuring Mr Trump looking like he always does, but Mr Giuliani in full drag, complete with frilly mauve dress, white gloves and a blonde wig.