Giuliani fired from top NYC radio station over 2020 election falsehoods

Rudy Giuliani was fired from a prominent New York talk radio station Friday after its Trump-supporting owner said the former mayor-turned-media personality “crossed the line” by promoting falsehoods about Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election.

“I was told by WABC that he crossed the line and they warned him,” John Catsimatidis, the billionaire energy and supermarket magnate who owns the station, told The Washington Post in a brief telephone interview. “He was a great mayor. It’s a shame,” Catsimatidis added. Later, when asked by text message whether Giuliani may return to the station’s airwaves at some point, Catsimatidis replied, “No.”

Catsimatidis earlier told the New York Times, “We’re not going to talk about fallacies of the November 2020 election,” and that Giuliani said in a pair of text messages that he wanted to keep discussing the topic on air.

Giuliani did not respond to a text message Friday seeking comment.

Catsimatidis briefly addressed the termination at the top of his usual 5 p.m. weekday show. “I guess the news stories are out that, one of the greatest mayors in New York’s history is no longer with WABC,” Catsimatidis told listeners. “We had differences, certain differences. And I still think he was a great mayor, and he was America’s mayor, and he’ll always be America’s mayor.”

About a week after a mob of Trump supporters rioted at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — temporarily delaying Congress from certifying Trump’s loss — Catsimatidis had the station issue a directive to on-air talent “to not state, suggest or imply that the election results are not valid or that the election is not over.” WABC employees were also told, “If this policy is violated, employees will be subject to immediate discipline, up to and including termination.”