“When people endure a traumatic event, they are either defeated or made stronger. On Sept. 11, I told New Yorkers, 'I want you to emerge stronger from this.' My words were partially a hope and partially an observation that people in New York City handle big things better than little things. I could not be more proud of the way my city responded.”

American politician and lawyer

Rudolph William Louis Giuliani is an American politician and disbarred lawyer, born in 1944. He served as mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001, after earlier posts as U.S. Associate Attorney General and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. He is widely known for his crime-focused mayoralty and his role in New York's response after the September 11 attacks. Before becoming mayor, Giuliani led federal prosecutions of New York City mafia bosses in the 1980s. He later won election to City Hall after an unsuccessful 1989 run, then was reelected in 1997. In 2000, he entered the race for a U.S. Senate seat from New York, but withdrew after a prostate cancer diagnosis. Following the attacks in 2001, he was called