Rudy Giuliani suspended by radio station WABC, talk show canceled

Rudy Giuliani was suspended from WABC radio on Friday and had his show canceled, according to station owner John Catsimatidis.

Catsimatidis, a billionaire and major donor to the Republican Party, told NBC News that Giuliani was warned twice by station management about his on-air comments questioning the legitimacy of the 2020 election on his daily talk show, which he has hosted for three years.

The suspension and cancellation of Giuliani’s show were first reported by The New York Times.

In a letter addressed to Giuliani and obtained by NBC News, Catsimatidis said Giuliani, Donald Trump’s former lawyer, was “prohibited from engaging in conversations related to the 2020 presidential election” on his WABC programs.

“These specific topics include, but are not limited to, the legitimacy of the election results, allegations of fraud made by election officials, and their personal lawsuits related to those allegations,” Catsimatidis wrote in the letter dated Thursday.

The aforementioned letter a recent news about two Georgia election officials who were awarded $148 million in damages last year in a defamation lawsuit against Giuliani and accuse him of making new false statements.

“Now you are once again asserting that there has been fraud. You cannot do it on our airwaves. This is a clear condition of your continued relationship with WABC. We do not condone these actions and do not want to be subject to the ramifications of his conduct under any circumstances,” Catsimatidis wrote.

The cancellation of the former New York mayor’s show was not planned, Catsimatidis told NBC News, adding that he “feels really bad because he’s still America’s mayor, but we need to know where to draw the line.”

Giuliani criticized WABC’s actions in a statement Friday.

“This directive is a clear violation of freedom of expression,” Giuliani said, arguing that he had not been previously informed about the restrictions.

“Obviously I was never informed about such a policy, and even if it existed, it was violated so frequently that it could not be taken seriously,” Giuliani said.

Giuliani is facing charges related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia and Arizona. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges in Georgia but has not yet entered a plea in Arizona.

His suspension from WABC comes after some news organizations were hit with lawsuits from voting machine companies over false statements about the 2020 election and the integrity of its results.

Last month, Smartmatic settled its defamation lawsuit against One America News Network out of court. In 2023, Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems reached a $787.5 million settlement over a 2021 lawsuit that alleged the voting machine company was defamed by Fox News and Fox Business hosts and guests.