Josephine Harvey
·Reporter, HuffPost
Rudy Giuliani got in a lather on his talk radio show Thursday when the station aired a lengthy disclaimer before his program.
“The views, assumptions and opinions expressed by” former President Donald Trump’s personal attorney and “his guests and callers on his program are strictly their own, and do not necessarily represent the opinions, beliefs or policies of WABC Radio” and its owners, other hosts and advertisers, New York’s 77 Talk Radio WABC said in a message before Giuliani’s daily afternoon show.
A surprised Giuliani opened the program by saying, “I would have thought they would have told me about that before just doing what they just did. Rather insulting. And gives you a sense of how far this free speech thing has gone. And how they frighten everybody. I mean, we’re in America, we’re not in East Germany.
“They’ve got to warn you about me? I’m going to have to give that a lot of consideration. I also think putting it on without telling me ? not the right thing to do. Not the right thing to do at all.”
Josephine Harvey
·Reporter, HuffPost
Rudy Giuliani got in a lather on his talk radio show Thursday when the station aired a lengthy disclaimer before his program.
“The views, assumptions and opinions expressed by” former President Donald Trump’s personal attorney and “his guests and callers on his program are strictly their own, and do not necessarily represent the opinions, beliefs or policies of WABC Radio” and its owners, other hosts and advertisers, New York’s 77 Talk Radio WABC said in a message before Giuliani’s daily afternoon show.
A surprised Giuliani opened the program by saying, “I would have thought they would have told me about that before just doing what they just did. Rather insulting. And gives you a sense of how far this free speech thing has gone. And how they frighten everybody. I mean, we’re in America, we’re not in East Germany.
“They’ve got to warn you about me? I’m going to have to give that a lot of consideration. I also think putting it on without telling me ? not the right thing to do. Not the right thing to do at all.”
Hours earlier, Giuliani was named as one of the defendants in a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit filed by voting system company Smartmatic against Fox News Corporation, which often allowed the former New York City mayor to spout false and unfounded conspiracy theories about the 2020 election on its Fox News and Fox Business channels.
The company accuses three of those network’s personalities ? Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs and Jeanine Pirro ? as well as Giuliani and attorney Sidney Powell of perpetrating in a monthslong disinformation campaign alleging that the election was rigged and that Smartmatic participated in that effort.
Last week, Dominion Voting Systems filed a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit against Giuliani for similar fictions about the election and the company.
Following his complaints about WABC, Giuliani accepted a call from a listener, whom he identified as Art from Westchester, New York.
“I want to warn you, you’re talking to me it doesn’t express anybody else’s viewpoint but mine,” Giuliani said. “But you kind of knew that anyway didn’t you? You didn’t need to be reminded of that did you?”
The caller informed Giuliani that he was a “different listener to WABC” ? which broadcasts other conservative hosts, such as Mark Levin ? and that he disagreed with “almost everything that you say, so I’m going to challenge you a little bit.”
Giuliani responded by insisting he had evidence (which he has still failed to produce) of widespread voter fraud, and then, as has been his pattern, reiterated several baseless conspiracy theories.