Andrew Giuliani Responds to Reports of Sister's Obama Fan Club Membership

Aug. 6, 2007 — -- Andrew Giuliani, the 21-year-old son of GOP presidential frontrunner Rudy Giuliani, weighed in Monday evening on reports that his sister Caroline, 17, was a member of a Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., fan club on Facebook.com.

"I love my sister very much and I respect her opinions," Andrew Giuliani told ABC News. "One of the great things about our parents is they've always encouraged us to see the world for ourselves."

If the kind words about his father are surprising after news in March that the former New York Mayor was estranged from his children -- following a very public divorce from their mother, Donna Hanover -- aspiring golf pro and Duke University junior Andrew says they shouldn't be.

He says he's spoken to his father since media reports about tensions between the two of them and says that relations were never all that bad.

"That story was overdone," he says. "It was nowhere near as bad as the story made it sound."

Andrew, who splits his time between New York City and North Carolina, says his dad would be a "great president. He's my father. He's my blood. Whatever differences we might go through -- that any family might go through -- I still support him and want him to be the best he can be. Just as I want my sister to be the best she can be, and just as I want my mother to be the best she can be."

Monday morning, after a reporter with Slate.com inquired about Caroline Giuliani's membership in the Facebook group "Barack Obama (One Million Strong for Barack)," the soon-to-be Harvard freshman removed her membership from the group.

Said Joannie C. Danielides, "a spokeswoman" for Caroline Giuliani, "Before the presidential campaign got under way, Caroline added herself to a list on Facebook as an expression of interest in certain principles. It was not intended as an indication of support in a presidential campaign and she has removed it. Caroline is not commenting on the 2008 election."

Campaigning in Clear Lake, Iowa, Monday afternoon, two-term former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said he doesn't "comment on [his] children because I want to give them the maximum degree of privacy."

"I think children in situations like this deserve to have the maximum degree of privacy," said the White House hopeful. "And the best way to preserve that is -- except to point out that you love them and care about them and you're very, very proud of them -- just don't comment about it," Giuliani said.

Andrew was not as reticent. "I was on Facebook for a while, I've cruised around on that," he said of his sister's Facebook membership in "One Million Strong for Barack." "You can get yourself into some interesting places."

He says he doesn't "want to speak for Caroline either way. I just want to say that I love her and think she's a great person."