'We're in America, not East Germany!' Rudy Giuliani lashes out at his New York talk radio station for airing legal disclaimer distancing itself from his views during his daily call-in show
Rudy Giuliani on Thursday blasted the New York radio station that pays him to host a daily call-in talk show on Thursday after it aired a lengthy and 'insulting' disclaimer before his program saying they did not share his views.
New York's 77 Talk Radio WABC aired the disclaimer just before Giuliani's show aired on Thursday.
Giuliani, the former New York City mayor, has served in recent years as former President Donald Trump's personal attorney.
After Trump lost the November presidential election, Giuliani was at the forefront of a legal and public relations campaign aimed to overturn the results citing unfounded allegations of widespread voter fraud.
'The views, assumptions, and opinions expressed by former U.S. attorney, former attorney to the president of the United States, and New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, his guests, and callers on his program are strictly their own and do not necessarily represent the opinions, beliefs, or policies of WABC radio, its owner, Red Apple Group, and other WABC hosts or our advertisers,' the disclaimer said.
The WABC legal disclaimer aired the same day Giuliani was among several entities named in a defamation lawsuit filed by Smartmatic, a voting technology company that was accused of fraud in the November presidential election.
Rudy Giuliani lashed out at his employer, New York's 77 Talk Radio WABC, after it aired a lengthy and 'insulting' disclaimer before his show saying they did not share his views. The former New York City mayor is seen above in Philadelphia on November 4
Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, has been at the forefront of a legal and public relations campaign to overturn the election results. He alleged widespread fraud resulted in former President Donald Trump's loss. Giuliani has been serving as Trump's personal attorney
Giuliani hosts a daily call-in talk show at Talk Radio 770 AM WABC. He is seen above during his radio show in this 2001 file photo
An insulted Giuliani appeared taken aback. After the disclaimer aired, he expressed anger that management did not speak to him about it beforehand.
'I would have thought they would have told me about that before just doing what they just did,' the former New York mayor and personal attorney to former President Donald Trump said.
'[The disclaimer was] 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.'
Giuliani appeared to hint that the disclaimer may force him to quit the station, saying: '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.'
Giuliani added: 'But got to tell you another thing, my dedication to free speech outweighs a lot of other things I can do.'
He then continued on with his radio show by inviting a caller to ask a question.
'Let's go to Art, Westchester,' Giuliani said.
He then warned Art, saying: 'You've got to be warned, Art. Arthur, I want to warn you, you know you're talking to me, doesn't express anybody else's viewpoint but mine.
'But you kind of already knew that anyway, didn't you, you didn't really need to be reminded of that, did you?'
Art, however, said he didn't agree with Giuliani's claims alleging voter fraud.
A defamation lawsuit by the Smartmatic voting machine company names 'Kraken' lawyer Sidney Powell
'Well, you see, I'm actually a different listener to WABC, I actually disagree with almost everything that you say so I'm going to challenge you a little bit,' Art said.
Art then asked the former mayor: 'Do you ever feel somewhat guilty about spreading a lot of unproven conspiracy theories to folks who may not have the ability or the critical thinking skills to kind of look through it?
'Do you feel that maybe you're taking advantage of the gullible?'
Smartmatic on Thursday filed a massive $2.7billion lawsuit against Giuliani and another pro-Trump attorney, Sidney Powell, as well as media giant Fox News – claiming the parties knew the election wasn't rigged but spread the narrative of a stolen election.
The suit – on the heels of another by Dominion Voting Systems – blasts the election fraud narrative that Trump's lawyers put forward as he sought to cling to power – and claimed Fox used its powerful airwaves to defame the company in the process.
'The Earth is round. Two plus two equals four. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won the 2020 election for President and Vice President of the United States,' the suit begins.
'The election was not stolen, rigged, or fixed. These are facts. They are demonstrable and irrefutable.'
The suit names Giuliani, who spearheaded his election fraud claims in TV interviews, on his own podcast, and in testimony before panels organized by Republican lawmakers as Trump sought to overturn results.
It also names former Trump campaign lawyer Powell, who appeared alongside Giuliani in an infamous news conference in Washington, DC, days after the election.
During that event, they made several wild claims about a foreign conspiracy to rig the election in favor of Joe Biden involving the late Venezualen dictator Hugo Chavez, China, Cuba, Dominion, and Smartmatic.
It also names three of Trump's favorite cable TV hosts in the Fox empire: Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo, Fox business host Lou Dobbs, and Fox host Judge Jeanine Pirro.
The complaint filed in New York State Court names the Rupert Murdoch-owned Fox Corp., the Fox News Network and Fox hosts Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs and Jeanine Pirro as defendants.
Unlike Dominion, whose technology was used in 24 states, Smartmatic's participation in the 2020 election was restricted to Los Angeles County, which votes heavily Democratic.
Smartmatic's limited role notwithstanding, Fox aired at least 13 reports falsely stating or implying the company had stolen the 2020 vote in cahoots with Venezuela's socialist government, according to the complaint.
The suit identifies the three Fox hosts by name
Rudy Giuliani points to a map as he speaks to the press about various lawsuits related to the 2020 election, inside the Republican National Committee headquarters on November 19, 2020 in Washington, DC
The suit names as a defendant Fox News host Jeanine Pirro
Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo is also named in the suit
Pirro visited the White House and Trump posed with her book
Voting machine maker Smartmatic has filed a lawsuit for defamation against Fox News hosts and former president Donald Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani
Trump lawyer Rudy Giuilani, who spoke at the 'stop the steal' rally before the Capitol riot, is also named
This alleged 'disinformation campaign' continued even after then-Attorney General William Barr said the Department of Justice could find no evidence of widespread voter fraud.
'Night after night, publication after publication, Fox News reached out to its millions of viewers and readers around the world with a story: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris did not win the 2020 election; Smartmatic stole the election for them,' it said, pointing to the role of the network, which aired Trump surrogates and allies making the claims.
The suit says the election fraud claim not only caused direct financial harm to the election company, but harmed the country as well. 'The story turned neighbor against neighbor,' it says.
'The story led a mob to attack the U.S. Capitol.'
Under the theory spelled out in the suit, the defendants knew Trump lost, but wanted him to win.
'Defendants had an obvious problem with their story. They needed a villain. They needed someone to blame. They needed someone whom they could get others to hate' – prompting them to invent the tale involving Smartmatic.
'Without any true villain, Defendants invented one. Defendants decided to make Smartmatic the villain in their story,' it says.
Also named in the suit are former New York mayor Giuliani, the ex-president's personal lawyer, and Sidney Powell, a lawyer for the Trump campaign who falsely claimed that voting machines had flipped votes for Trump to Biden.
Smartmatic's 285-page complaint said the defendants 'have always known these facts.
The suit includes exhibits with TV appearances by Giuliani and others
Dobbs' program included Powell's assertions tying the company to Venezuela
'It was a well-orchestrated dance between Ms. Bartiromo and Mr. Giuliani, as she set it up and he brought home a new aspect of the disinformation campaign,' the suit says
'They knew the election was not rigged or fixed,' it said, but they 'decided to tell people that the election was stolen' and to 'make Smartmatic the villain in their story.'
In December, Dobbs aired a bizarre segment taking on election fraud claims, evidently after receiving a 20-page letter from the company threatening legal action. ''There are lots of opinions about the integrity of the election, the irregularities of mail-in voting, of election voting machines and voting software,' the host said.
The network aired fact-check segments December included an expert saying he had not seen any evidence of the software being used for fraud. Pirros' show and Bartiromo's aired similar segments.
Fox News broadcast 13 reports stating and implying Smartmatic had stolen the election and that its technology was used in six states where the results were in dispute, the complaint said.
In fact, Smartmatic provided election technology and software only in Los Angeles County, California, it said, and county officials lauded its performance.
The complaint makes 16 claims of defamation and disparagement against the defendants and seeks $2.7billion for economic and punitive damages.
In a statement, Fox said 'Fox News Media is committed to providing the full context of every story with in-depth reporting and clear opinion.
'We are proud of our 2020 election coverage and will vigorously defend this meritless lawsuit in court,' Fox said.
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