Rudy Giuliani out of ICU, still recovering in hospital from pneumonia

NEW YORK CITY – Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has been moved out of the intensive care unit, but remains hospitalized as he continues to recover from a bout of pneumonia.

What we know:

A spokesperson for Giuliani announced on Thursday that the former mayor’s condition is improving.

“Mayor Rudy Giuliani is out of the ICU and will spend some time recovering before leaving the hospital,” Ted Goodman said on X.

He asked for continued prayers during Giuliani’s road to recovery.

The backstory:

Giuliani was in critical condition earlier this week after being hospitalized for pneumonia.

The former mayor’s illness was exacerbated by restrictive airway disease, a condition his spokesperson says he developed after his response to the September 11 attacks.

“This condition adds complications to any respiratory illness, and the virus quickly overwhelmed his body, requiring mechanical ventilation to maintain adequate oxygen and stabilize his condition,” Goodman said.

Dig deeper:

Giuliani earned the sobriquet “America’s Mayor,” as well as being named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year in 2001, for his response and leadership while serving as mayor of New York City in the wake of the September 11th attacks that brought down the World Trade Center towers. Giuliani, who had led the city since 1994, stepped down when his term in office expired at the end of the year.

In 2008, Giuliani launched a bid for the White House and was an early front-runner in the Republican primaries before being eclipsed by Arizona Sen. John McCain, the eventual GOP nominee. He returned to presidential politics eight years later, not as a candidate, but as a member of Donald Trump’s team during his successful 2016 bid for the White House.

Prior to becoming mayor, Giuliani rose to prominence as a federal prosecutor, as an Associate Attorney General in the early 1980s and then as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1983 until the beginning of 1989. During that time, Giuliani built a reputation by prosecuting cases against mob leaders.