Watch: Man Arrested for Assault After Lightly Slapping Giuliani on the Back

Americans nationwide signed in relief on Sunday as New York’s former mayor, Rudy Giuliani, narrowly survived being cuffed lightly on the back in a Staten Island ShopRite. “All of a sudden, I feel this, ‘Bam!’ on my back,” he told the New York Post of the incident, which occurred as Giuliani was stumping for his son, who is vying for the Republican nomination in New York’s gubernatorial race. After causing him “tremendous pain,” the Trump lawyer added, the unidentified 39-year-old man called him a “scumbag.” Feeling it was his civic duty to summon the police, Giuliani advised the Post: “You can’t let the little things go.” Surveillance footage of the horrific incident later emerged, showing the man walking by Giuliani and touching him on the back. Identified as a ShopRite employee by law enforcement sources, the man has been charged with second-degree assault involving a person over 65. Still obviously reeling from the brutal assault, Giuliani then took his experience to The New York Times, telling the paper that he still had “red marks” on his back. “He almost knocked me down,” Giuliani said. “Thank god—for a 78-year-old, I am in pretty good shape.”