‘It Will Ruin His Life’: Broke Giuliani On Brink of Losing Newsmax Show Over Election Lies
AP Photo/Seth Wenig
Rudy Giuliani is on the brink of losing yet another paycheck just days after being axed from his six-figure WABC radio gig over his inability to stop spewing election conspiracy theories.
Several sources at Newsmax said the fate of Giuliani’s show on the conservative network’s streaming platform is up in the air. Top brass, which has raised alarms about his election rhetoric, are considering whether to pull the show and drop the former mayor of New York altogether.
Giuliani regularly pushes election conspiracy theories on his Newsmax2 show America’s Mayor Live, but those comments are edited out in post-production over fears they could expose the network to further liability as it faces major defamation lawsuits over its coverage of the 2020 election, sources said.
Losing his Newsmax show would deal another blow to Giuliani, who is facing serious financial and legal peril. Two insiders confirmed he is being paid between $100,000 and $150,000 per year for the show.
Giuliani declared bankruptcy late last year just days after he was ordered to pay $148 million to two Georgia election officials he falsely accused of committing fraud in the 2020 race between Donald Trump and President Joe Biden. Bankruptcy filings showed his assets at around $10 million, most of which is real estate, including his Upper East Side penthouse — which is now on the market.
His main source of income was the radio show on WABC, which reportedly paid him $15,000 a month. The loss of income from Newsmax would be another serious blow to the disgraced lawyer once heralded as “America’s Mayor” and considered a serious candidate for president.
Giuliani has long caused headaches for Newsmax. One former staffer at the network recalled that for several months in 2022, when he was a regular on-air guest, he was not allowed to be live because of his propensity to push stolen election lies. His interviews were pre-taped.
In the wake of the 2020 election, Newsmax was slapped with two major defamation lawsuits from election tech companies Dominion and Smartmatic, which were central to conspiracy theories pushed by Trump and his allies claiming the race was rigged in favor of Biden.
“Giuliani was once a brilliant attorney and champion of New York City, but he has completely given in to the delusion that the election was stolen,” one source close to Giuliani told Mediaite. “He wholeheartedly believes everything he is saying, even if it’s to the point where it will ruin his life and bankrupt him.”
John Catsimatidis, the billionaire supermarket baron who owns WABC, put up with Giuliani’s conspiracy theories for years before canceling his show. On Monday, Catsimatidis issued a lengthy statement explaining that despite being warned repeatedly that pushing election lies was putting the station in legal jeopardy, “Rudy was continuing to double down on his defamatory comments about the Georgia election workers on social media, leading to additional filings against him by the plaintiffs in that lawsuit.”
“As a result of this new information and in an effort to protect the station, that same day, I sent Rudy a letter reminding him not to speak about the legitimacy of the election results on our air,” Catsimatidis wrote. “Yet just hours later, during his 3:00 pm show that day, he did just that.”
Ted Goodman with Giuliani issued a statement to Mediaite on Thursday via email, “Mayor Giuliani enjoys a fantastic relationship with Newsmax and its audience. Newsmax has grown into the successful network it is today, because its audience knows it is getting accurate and relevant information on the news that matters. We appreciate Mr. Ruddy and Newsmax’s commitment to free speech and allowing a vast array of views and perspectives on the air.”
