Rudy Giuliani claims he boycotted New York Yankees games over the organization’s support for Black Lives Matter.
The former New York City mayor, who was booed by Yankees fans on his birthday in 2018, made the statement about his attendance at the team’s games while bashing the Los Angeles Dodgers in the wake of their “Pride Night” invitation to a drag group that satirizes nuns.
“I want the American people to stop, don’t go to Dodger games. The Dodgers have decided to declare war on Christianity, forget the Dodgers. You don’t have to go,” Giuliani said in an interview with Newsmax.
“I did that with the Yankees when they supported Black Lives Matter. Sorry, I love my country more than baseball,” he added.
In a tweet posted Friday, Giuliani advocated for boycotting the Dodgers at least through 2023.
The Yankees publicly declared that “Black lives matter” while players donned “Black Lives Matter” T-shirts in July 2020. Giuliani wrote on Twitter in 2020 that Yankees players were “hypocritical” for kneeling before the game and slammed support for BLM as “disgraceful.”
He didn’t clarify to Newsmax how long his boycott lasted or whether he has since resumed attending games. Giuliani did not immediately respond to a HuffPost request for clarification on his remarks.
Since the summer of 2020, the ex-mayor has been an avid supporter of the Yankees on Twitter and has referred to himself as the “Yankees’ No. 1 fan” despite his claim of a boycott.
“Wanna see my credentials?” Giuliani said before he flashed a Yankees World Series ring in one clip last fall promising commentary on a Yankees playoff game.
“Some mayors would take a passive approach, and support both the @Yankees and @Mets... Not me! I am #Yankees all the way,” Giuliani wrote in a tweet in October. “You ALWAYS know where I stand.”
Giuliani also shared videos of himself reacting to Yankees games during their playoff run last season. He referred to the Yankees as one of his “great passions” last month and declared “Let’s Go, @Yankees ⚾️ 🇺🇲” as he watched a game on a phone last week, too.