More than a week after he was placed on a ventilator, unable to breathe on his own, the former New York City mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani addressed the public on Wednesday evening, saying that he felt “100 percent.”
Mr. Giuliani, 81, returned to a show he hosts on LindellTV, the online network run by Mike Lindell, the chief executive of MyPillow and one of Mr. Giuliani’s key allies in seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election on behalf of President Trump.
“I’m in the middle of making a very, very full and complete recovery,” Mr. Giuliani said in the first minutes of his appearance, looking unusually tan and speaking without the rasp in his voice that was noticeable before his hospitalization.
“I feel 100 percent, but I’m probably not,” he said. “I still am recovering from what was a pretty serious bout of viral pneumonia.”
Mr. Giuliani’s comments were his first since he was hospitalized earlier this month in West Palm Beach, Fla., with a critical case of pneumonia. His condition was serious enough that he was visited by a priest who performed last rites. But the former mayor, who will turn 82 this month, recovered and left the hospital on Sunday, according to a person familiar with the matter. Mr. Giuliani was back at his home in Palm Beach and broadcast from there on Wednesday.
Mr. Giuliani said that he and Mr. Trump spoke after he was admitted to the hospital but that there was a point at which he could not take the president’s call because of his treatment. “I’m not used to doing that,” Mr. Giuliani joked, before adding, “He’s just a godsend to this country.”
The former mayor then said that he had a beautiful spiritual experience while in the hospital and that he expected to elaborate in due course.
Last week, a spokesman for Mr. Giuliani, Ted Goodman, said the former mayor had restrictive airway disease, a condition Mr. Goodman said was related to Mr. Giuliani’s proximity to ground zero after the Sept. 11 attacks. The disease can make respiratory illnesses more dangerous.
A lawyer for Mr. Giuliani, Michael Barasch, told The New York Times that the former mayor was applying for free medical care through a federal program for emergency workers and others exposed to toxins after Sept. 11.
Given Mr. Giuliani’s age and the seriousness of his condition, there was a significant outpouring of support from public figures. Mr. Trump called Mr. Giuliani, his longtime ally and former personal lawyer, a “True Warrior” and suggested that his adversaries in politics and media were responsible for the former mayor’s condition.
“They cheated on the Elections, fabricated hundreds of stories, did anything possible to destroy our Nation, and now, look at Rudy. So sad!” he wrote on his social media platform.
New York City’s current mayor, Zohran Mamdani, wished Mr. Giuliani a steady recovery, as did former Mayor Eric Adams.
Mr. Giuliani’s health has declined in recent years. Last summer, he was involved in a car crash in New Hampshire in which he suffered a fractured vertebra. After that, Mr. Giuliani made at least one public appearance in a wheelchair.
Jonah E. Bromwich covers criminal justice in the New York region for The Times. He is focused on political influence and its effect on the rule of law in the area’s federal and state courts.
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