Giuliani suspended from New York radio for espousing conspiracies about 2020 elections

Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, continues to fall into disgrace in the courts and in the North American press. On Friday, New York radio station WABC suspended the Republican’s commentary space for violating the station’s policies by trying to promote allegations about the 2020 presidential election on air.

To the New York Timesthe billionaire who owns WABC, fellow Republican John Catsimatidis, explained that Giuliani insisted on addressing the issue, despite Catsimatidis having reiterated that the radio “will not talk about fallacies about the November 2020 elections”.

“I warned him once, twice. And I got a text from him last night and this morning [sexta-feira], saying that he refused not to talk about it. Therefore, he left me no other option and I suspended him”, explained Catsimatidis.

Giuliani has already responded to WABC’s decision and, in a statement, said that the station’s policies are “a clear violation of freedom of expression” and denied being aware of censorship of conspiracy theories about the elections that Joe Biden won against Donald Trump . And he said that he only found out about the suspension when he read the news in the press.

In a video published on the social network X (formerly Twitter), he also condemned the radio for pleasing the “disgusting” Joe Biden.

Rudy Giuliani became one of the most prominent voices in the Republican Party. Considered “Person of the Year” by TIME magazine for the way he managed New York City after 9/11, Giuliani jumped from position to position until he entered Donald Trump’s closest circle, when he ran for president in 2016. Despite Although he was not part of President Trump’s administration, he was an advisor to the controversial and populist Republican leader.

After the 2020 elections, Rudy, then Trump’s lawyer, actively sought to reverse the results in some states where the vote was closer. Giuliani helped the former president’s legal team challenge the results, but all the conspiracy theories and allegations of electoral fraud raised by Donald Trump were considered false, and Joe Biden was considered the clear winner of the presidential election.

Neither Trump nor Giuliani stopped believing that the election was stolen, and both are being investigated by the courts for attempted electoral fraud. In the states of Georgia and Arizona, Giuliani faces lawsuits for his role in the 2020 elections, including by two election officials, to whom Rudy owes 148 million dollars (around 130 million euros) for defamation.

The financial difficulties of the former “Mayor of America” are well known. Donald Trump, now again a candidate for the White House for this year’s November presidential election, has already organized some fundraising events to support the former lawyer, who has already declared bankruptcy and continues to accumulate debts. According to NBC News, in March 2016, Giuliani sold his luxurious condominium in the state of Florida to pay some lawsuit compensation; on social media, he promoted videos in which people could pay for him to record messages, congratulations or others; and, in December, The Guardian reported that the amount Giuliani owes – due to a mountain of complaints for assaults, abuse, fraud, defamation, among others – could reach 500 million dollars.

Long relationship with Trump tarnished after 2020 allegations

Despite Giuliani’s controversial opinions on various topics, in addition to the 2020 elections, WABC is one of the last media outlets to hold the former mayor to a source of income. Catsimatidis, a retail tycoon, turned the radio station into a stage for conservative and unusual voices from New York, and Giuliani had a program every day of the week, as well as a presence on Sunday.

According to the New York Times, Rudy Giuliani earns around 370,000 euros a year at WABC, but documents available through court proceedings show that the former lawyer continues to lose money, largely due to his opulent lifestyle.

WABC hosted Trump for some interviews, in which the former president continued to allege the existence of fraud in the 2020 elections. John Catsimatidis was recently a donor to the Republican candidate’s campaign. But the aftermath of the many defamation lawsuits brought against Republican extremists, who promoted the idea of ​​a stolen election, has led many media outlets, including WABC, to look at Giuliani with greater concern.

In 2021, after the attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters, the company that owns WABC reaffirmed the fair result of the elections and made it clear that it would not broadcast opinions that pointed to false theories about suffrage.

However, the host continued to challenge the issue, and when he was convicted of defaming two female election workers in Georgia (which led to the women receiving multiple death threats), he used the show to continue making false statements.

Before Giuliani’s suspension, Catsimatidis tells the Times that, on Thursday, Giuliani was on a live tirade against the court cases against him, and against the revocation of his license to practice law in New York – but the radio cut him off. the word and quickly diverted to other news.

The billionaire emphasizes that the decision to suspend the former Republican mayor is tough, as he has known Giuliani for four decades. “I like him as a person, but you can’t do that. You can’t cross the line,” he stressed.