Rudolph W. Giuliani was suspended Friday from WABC radio and his daily talk show canceled after he violated station policy by attempting to discuss discredited claims on the air about the legitimacy of the presidential election. 2020.
John Catsimatidis, the billionaire who is a major Republican donor and owner of the station, said he made the decision after Mr. Giuliani refused to comply with election-related policy after repeated warnings.
“We are not going to talk about the mistakes of the November 2020 elections,” Mr. Catsimatidis said in a brief telephone interview. “We warned him once. We warned him twice. And I get a text from him last night, and I get a text from him this morning saying he refuses to not talk about it.
“So,” continued Mr. Catsimatidis, “he left me no option. I suspended it.
Mr. Giuliani, a former mayor of New York, was a leading figure in former President Donald J. Trump’s attempts to challenge and overturn the results of the 2020 election. He was at the time the Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer and helped coordinate legal challenges to Mr. Biden’s victory in several states in an effort to keep Mr. Trump in power.
Mr. Guiliani’s removal from WABC, one of his only current sources of income, could worsen the growing legal and financial problems that have accumulated since then. The suspension will also deprive him of what could be one of his biggest public platforms.
Mr. Giuliani was criminally accused in two states, Georgia and Arizona, for this role in efforts to overturn the 2020 results and has been involved in a number of recent lawsuits. He was also besieged by creditorsincluding two Georgia election officials he defamed in the aftermath of the 2020 elections, and to whom he he now owes $148 million.
Mr. Giuliani could not immediately be reached for comment.
WABC aired Mr. Giuliani’s show to show every day of the week and Sunday. Mr. Catsimatidis said he did not pay Mr. Giuliani a salary; the former mayor instead earned a percentage of the advertising revenue generated by the show.
Mr. Catsimatidis said Mr. Giuliani attempted to speak on-air during the final minutes of his show Thursday about election-related issues, but station employees cut him off.
“Look, I like this guy as a person, but you can’t do that,” Mr. Catsimatidis said. “You can’t cross the line.”
He added: “In my opinion, no one really knows, but we had developed a company policy. It’s over, life goes on.
