Giuliani: Jeb is the GOP front-runner

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) on Thursday said Jeb Bush is at the front of the pack of GOP contenders seeking the Republican presidential nominee.

“I think Jeb Bush is the front-runner and the star of the field,” Giuliani said in an interview on the Fox News show “Fox & Friends.” “He’s the guy everybody has to focus on.”

It appears increasingly likely that Bush will first have to slug it out with two other well-funded establishment candidates, the 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, both of whom are moving towards a run.

Giuliani criticized Romney’s 2012 campaign, saying he should have made a bigger issue out of the attack against the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.

“If he had made Benghazi a bigger issue, I think we would have had a better chance,” Giuliani said. “He backed off it in the debate and he shouldn’t have — I think he was advised to because he made one mistake about Benghazi that Candy Crowley was wrong about and I think he got shy about it.”

At a striking moment in their 2012 debate, moderator Candy Crowley corrected Romney, who said President Obama failed to call the Benghazi attack and act of terror.

Obama also had a personal retort to Romney’s criticism of his handling of the attack, saying he was the one who has to “greet those coffins when they come home.”

Giuliani, who ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, argued Thursday that Romney would have to put forth a compelling argument about why he deserves another look in what would be his third consecutive run for president.

“He’s going to have to convince his big supporters, many of whom have already gone to Bush or Christie, that he’s going to run a different kind of campaign this time,” Giuliani said. “That it’s going to be a much more aggressive campaign, it’s going to be a much more engaged campaign … he’s going to have to convince his supporters he’s going to be a very different kind of candidate. This is a better field.”

In addition to the big three establishment candidates, there’s also a big potential field of candidates that will appeal to conservative grassroots voters, including Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.), Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas), former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, former Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.) and Dr. Ben Carson.

There are also a host of conservative governors, like Scott Walker in Wisconsin, Bobby Jindal in Louisiana, Rick Perry in Texas, Mike Pence in Indiana, and John Kasich in Ohio, who could be considering bids.

Giuliani on Wednesday warned the GOP contenders against attacking one another at this stage.

“I’m not the head of the RNC, but if I was I would say the following, If you say anything bad about a Republican, I’m coming on this show and saying something bad about you,” he said. “I don’t care what it is. We are running against Hillary Clinton — we’re not running against Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, we’re all on the same side.”

Paul in particular has not been shy about attacking his Republican counterparts.

He has called Bush a “moderate” and said for Romney to consider a third consecutive run is the “definition of insanity.”