Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was suspended by WABC radio last Friday after he ignored repeated warnings from the station not to discuss discredited claims that the 2020 presidential election was manipulated on air.
On Monday, the radio station’s CEO John Catsimatidis gave a detailed statement on how he reached that decision. Catsimatidis wrote in his account that after he stressed the point about refraining from any allegations of electronic voting manipulation to Giuliani over the past few months, Giuliani gave him an ultimatum last week demanding he double his airtime and salary.
“Given his recent ultimatum, his direct violation of an agreement he signed to not talk about electronic voting machines, and his absolute refusal to abide by company policy, the company had no choice but to suspend him last Friday, pending further discussions,” Catsimatidis wrote.
He continued that at first his aim was only to suspend him until they could have a sit-down meeting in person, but when Giuliani appeared on Newsmax to publicly air his grievances with the radio station, Catismatidis felt that Giuliani was attempting “to force his hand.”
Later that day, Giuliani posted to his X/Twitter account accusing WABC of restricting free speech. “That’s why they FIRED me for refusing to be censored about the 2020 Presidential Election,” he wrote in the post.
Catsimatidis pushed back against this line of attack in his lengthy statement, clarifying that WABC’s lawyers had reached an agreement with Dominion Voting Systems’ lawyers that the station would instruct its on-air talent not to talk about Dominion. His aim was to protect the station from defamation lawsuits like the one that Fox News settled for $787.5 million after several hosts and guests made discredited allegations that Dominion’s voting machines had been rigged.
“As a licensee of the FCC, the First Amendment grants me the rights and responsibilities to protect WABC. Each decision I make is guided by what I believe best serves the station, our listeners, and above all, the truth,” Catsimatidis wrote.
Catsimatidis maintained that the ban on Dominion-related voting claims has remained the policy of the station ever since January 2021 and is a common industry-wide practice. In the statement Catsimatidis said that Giuliani had “agreed not to speak about Dominion” or other allegations of election fraud around the 2020 election.
The former mayor still has a live talk show on X, which he used to criticize the station over the weekend. He reportedly said that he agreed not to bring up Dominion Voting Systems, but said that he did not agree to discuss other claims about the election.
Giuliani himself has been the target of defamation lawsuits about the 2020 election. In December, a jury awarded two Georgia election workers $148 million in their defamation lawsuit against Giuliani, who had falsely claimed that they had manipulated the state’s presidential election results.
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