Worker arrested after slapping Rudy Giuliani on back, calling him a ‘scumbag’ for Roe decision

The former New York City mayor said his assailant was angry about the Supreme Court’s decision overturning abortion rights

Rudy Giuliani has said he was slapped on the back and called a "scumbag" by a shop worker over the Supreme Court's ruling overturning abortion rights in the US.

The former New York City mayor and close aide to Donald Trump told The New York Post that he was berated by a grocery store worker on Staten Island on Sunday, while out campaigning for his son Andrew Giuliani to be governor of New York.

CCTV footage showed a person in a mask walking up behind Mr Giuiliani and slapping him on the upper back, making him jump slightly, before appearing to be escorted away by a shop worker or one of Mr Giulian's entourage.

"All of a sudden, I feel this, ‘bam!’ on my back,” Mr Giuliani told the Post. “I don’t know if they helped me not fall down, but I just about fell down, but I didn’t.

"I feel this tremendous pain in my back, and I’m thinking, what the – I didn’t even know what it was,” he said. “All of a sudden, I hear this guy say, ‘you’re a f–king scumbag,' then he moves away so nobody can grab him.

"He says: 'You, you’re one of the people that’s gonna kill women. You’re gonna kill women. You and your f–king friend are gonna kill women.’ Then he starts telling out all kinds of, just curses... ‘you guys think you’re saving babies, but you’re gonna kill women.’"

Rita Rugova-Johnson, a witness, told the Post that she was "stunned" by the attack, saying: "We’re talking [with Giuliani], and all of a sudden an employee came out of nowhere and open-handedly slapped him in the back and said, ‘Hey, what’s up scumbag?’"

The person, said to be a 39-year-old Staten Island local with no prior criminal record, was reportedly arrested and will be charged with second-degree assault involving a person over the age of 65.

The confrontation came two days after the Supreme Court reversed the longstanding legal precedent established in Roe v Wade, which has guaranteed Americans' right to an abortion for nearly 50 years.

Thousands of people gathered in New York and across the US to protest the decision, while so-called "trigger bans" passed by Republican state legislatures went into effect in Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Utah, with other states likely to follow.

The 6-3 ruling was made possible by the strong majority of conservative justices appointed to the Court by Mr Giuliani's client Donald Trump when he was president, as well as by a Republican blockade of nominations during the final