Former Big Apple Mayor Rudy Giuliani continued to grouse Monday that he was “fired” from his WABC radio show for refusing to stop peddling 2020 election conspiracy theories — but station owner John Catsimatidis says no official decision on his employment status has been made.
“I never fire anybody without having a sit down, and an understanding of what went wrong,” the billionaire grocery store magnate told The Post Monday.
Earlier in the day, Giuliani wrote on X, “Unfortunately, you won’t hear from me on WABC today, because I was FIRED for refusing to give in to their demand that I stop talking about the 2020 Presidential Election,” urging followers to contact the station to “ask them if they support free speech.”
The ex-mayor was suspended from the station without pay Friday after ignoring multiple formal warnings from the station to avoid the topic and making it clear he had no intentions of following the edict.
Giuliani, 79, went on a “stolen election” tirade during the final three minutes of “The Rudy Giuliani Show” Thursday, in direct defiance of a company-wide edict “not to state, suggest or imply that the election results are not valid,” according to Catsimatidis, who runs Red Apple Media.
He then spent days blasting Catsimatidis during livestreamed broadcasts on X, accusing him of stifling his free speech and kowtowing to President Biden.
The former mayor hosted the show since 2021.
Catsimatidis said he had sent Giuliani a letter admonishing him that he was “prohibited from engaging in conversations relating to the 2020 presidential election” — prompting the bankrupt, twice-indicted ex-attorney for Donald Trump to fire off a confrontational text message stating he was “disregarding every order given in this letter.”
After Giuliani’s defiant missive, Catsimatidis told The Post he was left with “no choice” but to suspend Giuliani from his $15,000-per-month radio gig, telling him he wasn’t allowed to go on the air for his 3 p.m. show on Friday.
Catsimatidis said at this point the ex-mayor became “belligerent,” using his “America’s Mayor Live” show on X later that night to rail against the billionaire station owner, claiming his suspension was motivated by a desire to appease “trailer trash little creep” President Biden.
“I said to him, you’re suspended, let’s sit down and talk on Monday, and then he went berserk on us,” Catsimatidis told The Post late Friday night.
Catsimatidis filled in on Giuliani’s scheduled Sunday show from 10 to 11 a.m. along with WABC 770 hosts Curtis Sliwa and Dominick Carter.
“What happened last week was very tragic,” the CEO of grocery chains Gristedes and D’Agostino Supermarkets said on the air Sunday during what had previously been the time slot for the “Rudy Giuliani Show.”
“When I hired Rudy I got a lot of criticism,” Catsimatidis said, referring to the controversy around the ex-mayor and former federal prosecutor, including an FBI probe. “In this country, you’re innocent until proven guilty.”
He spoke highly of Giuliani’s tenure as New York City mayor and said he considered the falling out sad.
Under suspension with his fate at the station uncertain, Giuliani took to X Sunday night in a livestream alongside his former WABC co-host Dr. Maria Ryan, doubling down with a blistering rebuke of his former boss.
“I’m not going to work for a censorship station. No one at the station can talk about the 2020 election? I talk about the 2020 election all the time. I can’t talk about the 2020 election when there is a $148 million judgment against me?” he said.
“John doesn’t have enough money to get me to do that. He can’t influence me with this money. He can go stuff it,” the ex-mayor fumed.
