WASHINGTON – Rudy Giuliani was suspended from WABC radio on Friday over discussing false claims about the 2020 presidential election on his daily talk show, which was also canceled.
John Catsimatidis, a billionaire Republican businessman, told the New York Times, which first reported the firing, that Giuliani was given several warnings before he made the decision to terminate him from the radio station.
“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 that he refuses not to talk about it,” Castimatidis told the New York Times.
“He left me no option. I suspended him,” Castimatidis said.
Giluliani served as former President Donald Trump’s former campaign lawyer. Giuliani, one of the former president’s top allies, has repeatedly espoused false claims of fraud in the 2020 election. A federal jury ordered him in December to pay $148 million in damages to a pair of Georgia election workers for defaming them. Giuliani declared bankruptcy not long after the decision and is currently seeking to appeal the ruling.
Giuliani, also a former mayor of New York City, is additionally currently facing criminal charges in Arizona and Georgia for his role in efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
“John Catsimatidis and (WABC radio) fired me for refusing to comply with their overly broad directive,” Giuliani said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, pushing back against his firing, calling it “a clear violation of free speech.”
Among the topics that Giuliani was barred from discussing on his show, according to a letter obtained by NBC News sent on Thursday, included, “but are not limited to, the legitimacy of the election results, allegations of fraud effectuated by election workers, and your personal lawsuits relating to those allegations.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Rudy Giuliani suspended from WABC radio station, talk show canceled
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