WABC owner: Rudy Giuliani’s show canceled after defying order not to discuss false 2020 election conspiracy theories

Rudy Giuliani was suspended from New York City radio station WABC and his talk show canceled after he flagrantly ignored orders not to discuss false 2020 election conspiracy theories, the station’s owner said Monday.

Rudy Giuliani was suspended from New York City radio station WABC and his talk show canceled after he flagrantly ignored orders not to discuss false 2020 election conspiracy theories, the station’s owner said Monday. Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and Donald Trump lawyer who has hosted a daily talk show on the AM station for three years, was pulled from the airwaves Friday after he repeated bogus claims of vote rigging in the 2020 presidential election. In recent months, Giuliani was repeatedly directed to not make claims of electronic voting manipulation surrounding the 2020 election, John Catsimatidis, the billionaire GOP donor and owner of the radio station, said in a statement. Catsimatidis said the station received a letter in January 2021 from election technology company Dominion Voting Systems, which has been the target of baseless vote rigging claims by right-wing media figures, including Giuliani. WABC instructed its on-air hosts, including Giuliani, to avoid the subject, Catsimatidis said. “Guiliani has admitted repeatedly over the past few days that he agreed not to speak about Dominion,” Catsimatidis said. “However, he was also warned numerous times, particularly in the past few months, to refrain from any allegations of electronic voting manipulation surrounding the 2020 election.” But on Wednesday, a Bloomberg News article highlighted Giuliani had doubled down on potentially defamatory comments about two Georgia poll workers who had previously won a $148 million judgment against Giuliani, Catsimatidis said. Giuliani was sent a letter the same day, reminding him to avoid the subject on-air, Catsimatidis said, though this, too, was ignored, with Giuliani again broaching the subject on his show that same day. Later that night, Giuliani allegedly texted Catsimatidis saying, “I am disregarding every order given in this letter.”