Rudy Giuliani used a Fox & Friends appearance to explain his belief that President Obama does not love America, claiming that he rarely hears the president express love for America or discuss American exceptionalism -- an awkward claim given that just yesterday President Obama extolled America in a public speech.

“I do not believe, and I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I do not believe that the president loves America,” Giuliani said earlier this week during an event featuring Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. “He doesn't love you. And he doesn't love me. He wasn't brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up through love of this country.” Asked to explain that position during an appearance on Fox & Friends, Giuliani said:

GIULIANI: In his rhetoric, I very rarely hear him say the things that I used to hear Ronald Reagan say, the things I used to hear Bill Clinton say about how much he loves America. I do hear him criticize America much more often than other American presidents.

Giuliani's comments fit into a long term pattern of Fox News hosts and guests campaigning to smear Obama by portraying him as insufficiently proud of America. But his claim is particularly tone deaf today, coming just one day after Obama celebrated what he called America's unique strength and perseverance:

OBAMA: For more than 238 years, the United States of America has not just endured, but we have thrived and surmounted challenges that might have broken a lesser nation. After a terrible civil war, we repaired our union. We weathered a Great Depression, became the world's most dynamic economy. We fought fascism, liberated Europe. We faced down communism -- and won. American communities have been destroyed by earthquakes and tornadoes and fires and floods -- and each time we rebuild.

[...]

My point is this: As Americans, we are strong and we are resilient. And when tragedy strikes, when we take a hit, we pull together, and we draw on what's best in our character -- our optimism, our commitment to each other, our commitment to our values, our respect for one another. We stand up, and we rebuild, and we recover, and we emerge stronger than before. That's who we are. [Whitehouse.gov, 2/18/15]

Contrary to the right-wing smear campaign, Obama has repeated spoken about his belief in American exceptionalism, even citing his own career as “testimony to American exceptionalism.”

Media Matters researcher Nicholas Rogers contributed research to this post.