Billionaire WABC radio owner John Catsimatidis unloaded on ex-Mayor Rudy Giuliani again Sunday, saying the suspended radio host’s behavior has left him little choice but to can him.
“It’s pretty hard to bring him back,” Catsimatidis told The Post. “His behavior makes it very hard to reverse course. He makes it hard not to terminate him.”
Catsimatidis himself filled in on Giuliani’s scheduled Sunday show from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., along with other WABC 770 hosts Curtis Sliwa and Dominick Carter.
The radio boss said Giuliani had “three strikes” after hearing Giuliani’s criticism of his suspension over the weekend on other media platforms.
Catsimatidis said all his radio hosts had received a memo not to discuss the electronic voting machines or the accuracy of them during the 2020 election, after the radio station received a letter from lawyers with Dominion Voting Systems. Dominion had sued other media outlets for defamation.
He said he didn’t want his radio station to be dragged into litigation over false claims.
Catsimatidis said the station “dubbed” or “bleeped” Giuliani when Donald Trump’s one-time personal lawyer discussed the voting machines last week, resulting in his suspension for violating the edict.
The station has a 30-second delay, so Giuliani’s comments didn’t make it on the public airwaves.
Giuliani’s program was suspended pending further discussion, he said.
“That was strike 1,” Catsimatidis said.
He also said Giuiliani “issued an ultimate to double the hours of his show – or else.”
“Strike two,” Catsimatidis said.
Giuliani accused Catsimatidis of trampling on the First Amendment’s free speech rights on his America’s Mayor show on X Friday night.
“What John Catsimatidis has done is disgraceful. With the pretense that he was building some kind of a First Amendment station, he blew a hole in the First Amendment that’s so big you can’t even find it. You can’t tell somebody not to talk about the 2020 presidential election and tell me that you have a respect for free speech,” Giuliani said.
Catsimatidis fired back on those claims Sunday and said he was not aware that Giuliani had a paid gig with TV station Newsmax.
He called Giuliani’s blowback “strike three.”
He also said he gave Giuliani’s sidekick, Maria Ryan, 30-days notice for her departure.
“What happened last week was very tragic,” Catsimatidis said on the air during a chat on the one-time “Rudy Giuliani Show.”
References to the Giuliani show have been removed from the WABC website.
“When I hired Rudy I got a lot of criticism,” Catsimatidis said, referring to the FBI probe of the former federal prosecutor. “In this country, you’re innocent until proven guilty.”
He said he thought Giuliani had been a great mayor and considered the falling out sad.
The Post reached out to Giuliani for comment but didn’t immediately hear back.
