Rudy Giuliani became visibly emotional while paying tribute to former New York police commissioner Bernie Kerik, who died Thursday at age 69.

The disgraced former New York City mayor audibly sniffled and appeared to be holding back tears at several points during Thursday’s episode of his “America’s Mayor Live” podcast, a segment of which was recorded just moments after Kerik’s death was publicly confirmed.

Describing Kerik as “my closest friend and my brother, who saved my life,” Giuliani said, “Actually, there was no one in my life who was braver than he was.”

“I was a better man for having known Bernie. I certainly was a braver man and a stronger man, and I wish my father had known Bernie because my father was the bravest man I ever knew,” he explained. “I don’t know what I’m going to do without him. Never expected this. I love him.”

Then-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, right, and New York Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik in 2000. New York Daily News Archive via Getty Images

A New Jersey native and Army veteran, Kerik was appointed by Giuliani to serve as New York’s police commissioner in 2000. He was hailed as a national hero after overseeing the city’s response, rescue and recovery efforts in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

In 2004, he was tapped by then-President George W. Bush to lead the Department of Homeland Security. Five years later, however, he pleaded guilty to federal tax fraud and false statement charges, and was given a four-year prison sentence, of which he served three years.

President Donald Trump pardoned Kerik during a 2020 clemency blitz, after which Kerik reteamed with Giuliani to investigate Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud following his loss to Joe Biden later that year.

Deeming Kerik “one of the first victims of lawfare,” Giuliani added: “He was pardoned by a great president with a big heart and a lot of decency, and he loved that president.

“Bernie dedicated, I would say, the last years of his life, from about 2015 on, to making sure Donald Trump would become president, and would succeed as president,” he continued. “He loved him. He absolutely loved him.”

Toward the end of the broadcast, Giuliani said he’d been planning to visit Kerik over the weekend.

“I feel like I should’ve been with him,” he said.

Watch Thursday’s episode of “America’s Mayor Live” below. Giuliani’s comments on Bernie Kerik begin around the 1:08:52 mark: 

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