Rudy Giuliani sits between two YouTube Logos

Molly Butler/Media Matters

YouTube has provided a home for Rudy Giuliani's election denial after WABC canceled his radio shows

In the two months after WABC canceled his radio shows, Giuliani spread election misinformation, such as claiming the 2020 election was “stolen” and Democrats are “going to cheat” in the 2024 election, in YouTube streams nearly every weekday

Written by Payton Armstrong

Research contributions from Kayla Gogarty

Published

Updated

Since WABC canceled Rudy Giuliani’s radio shows for reportedly ignoring warnings to stop spreading 2020 election misinformation, he continued to make baseless allegations about the 2020 election on YouTube, including repeatedly claiming that “the election was stolen” and asserting that “to say I’m not going to discuss the 2020 elections is to say I’m going to allow the 2024 elections to be stolen.”

Media Matters reviewed Giuliani’s YouTube channel, where he streamed every weekday and five Sundays during the two months following WABC’s cancelation of his shows (May 10 through July 12). We found that he spread misinformation about the 2020 and/or 2024 elections on 90% of those days.

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  • Giuliani has repeatedly spread misinformation about the 2020 and/or 2024 elections to WABC and YouTube audiences

  • Giuliani has an extensive history of using YouTube to spread election misinformation

    On May 10, WABC canceled Giuliani’s radio shows, The Rudy Giuliani Show and Uncovering the Truth, after he allegedly ignored warnings from the network to stop claiming the 2020 election was stolen. After the cancelation, Giuliani began streaming those shows on YouTube, in addition to his pre-existing YouTube show America’s Mayor Live. On July 1, Giulani also began streaming The Rudy Giuliani Show on FrankSpeech, the media platform of MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell — who has a history of pushing election denial.

    Giuliani’s increased presence on YouTube came despite a history of the former Trump lawyer prolifically spreading election conspiracy theories, including on the platform. In one lawsuit that Giuliani faced after the 2020 election, Dominion Voting Systems alleged that he used his YouTube channel and radio program to make false claims that the company had engaged in election fraud and sued him for $1.3 billion. In 2021, YouTube suspended Giuliani from participating in its ad revenue sharing program, removed content from his account, and temporarily blocked his channel from uploading new videos after he repeatedly violated the platform’s presidential election integrity policy, which had banned “content that advances false claims that widespread fraud, errors, or glitches changed the outcome of any past U.S. presidential election.”

    In June 2023, YouTube rolled back its election misinformation policy, announcing that it would no longer remove such false content about the 2020 and other U.S. presidential elections. The policy change, which was implemented even though the platform was rife with misinformation about the 2020 election, was celebrated by right-wing media figures.

  • Giuliani spread election misinformation on YouTube nearly every weekday in the months following his WABC suspension

    Media Matters reviewed Giuliani’s YouTube channel in the two months following WABC’s cancelation of his shows and found that Giuliani spread misinformation about the 2020 and/or 2024 elections on 46 of the 51 days (or 90%) that he livestreamed at least one of his shows. In fact, Giuliani streamed on the platform every weekday, pushing election misinformation on 41 of those 46 days; he also streamed on 5 Sundays, pushing election misinformation all 5 of those days.

    Giuliani spread misinformation about the 2020 election on 41 days and misinformation about the 2024 election on 16 days, with at least 11 of the days including misinformation about both the 2020 and 2024 elections. 

    Giuliani repeatedly pushed claims that vast voter fraud had occurred in several states during the 2020 election — including in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan, and Wisconsin — and used the claims to imply that there would be similar issues in 2024. Giuliani falsely claimed that “revelations have now come out which makes it clear that the election was stolen,” asserting that, “if we get cowered into not talking about the 2020 election, they're going to feel much more empowered to cheat heavily in 2024.”

    In reality, Giuliani's claims of vast voter fraud have been repeatedly debunked by election officials and experts, and even led to his disbarment in New York.

    Notably, we found that 18 of the YouTube videos with misinformation were streams listed under the same names of two shows that WABC canceled — The Rudy Giuliani Show and Uncovering the Truth. (Despite the names, the streams we identified have no affiliation with the radio station.) The other 28 videos were streams of America’s Mayor Live.

    Media Matters also found 2 monetized livestreams, despite YouTube previously demonetizing Giuliani’s channel. (It is unclear whether YouTube ever reinstated Giuliani to its ad revenue sharing program.) Notably, the ads Media Matters observed on the videos were political ads with Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance.

    5/10 rudy giuliani monetized yt
    7/11 Giuliani YT ad

  • Timeline: In the two months after WABC canceled Giuliani’s radio shows, he spread misinformation about the 2020 and/or 2024 elections 46 of the 51 days he streamed on YouTube

  • After being fired from WABC, Giuliani streamed on YouTube and accused Democrats of “stealing the election.”

    On the day he was fired from WABC, Giuliani bragged about making election denialism a “substantial” part of his WABC show and blamed Democrats for “stealing the election” in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Arizona. During the monetized livestream, Giuliani added that he “put people on [his show] who’ve written books about the stolen election,” and said, seemingly addressing WABC owner John Catsimatidis, “I spent a great deal of time on 2000 Mules. What was 2000 Mules about, John? It was about election fraud!” [YouTube, America's Mayor Live, 5/10/24, accessed 7/24/24]

  • Giuliani suggested that following WABC’s policies against spreading 2020 election misinformation would be tantamount to “allow[ing] the 2024 elections to be stolen.”

    Giuliani said: “The election in Georgia in 2020 was a complete fix. Everybody in Georgia who's on the in — meaning the crooked politicians in Georgia, of which there are many — know it.” He later added, “If you don't address 2020 and you cover it up the way WABC wants to do and the way the Bidens want to do and the way the communists want to do, it's going to happen again. To say I'm not going to discuss the 2020 elections is to say I'm going to allow the 2024 elections to be stolen.” [YouTube, Uncovering the Truth, 5/12/24]

  • Giuliani suggested “it become[s] more likely they cheat in 2024” if “we are submitted to the dictate of John Catsimatidis.”

    Giuliani asked, “Isn't it much more likely they won't cheat if their prior cheating is laid out and they end this protection they're getting for what they did in 2020, which nobody else would get other than crooked Biden Democrats?” [YouTube, The Rudy Giuliani Show, 5/13/24]

  • Giuliani claimed the conduct of Georgia elected officials in 2020 “proved that the election was stolen.”

    Giuliani also said: “How do I know they're phony ballots? Because nobody would ever show them to me.” [YouTube, The Rudy Giuliani Show, 5/14/24]

  • Giuliani claimed that it was his “job” to “keep alerting the American people” that the 2020 election was stolen.

    A person off-screen, whom Giuliani refers to as “Danny,” declared, “The real insurrection was November 5, when the election was stolen from Trump, and January 6 was just the cover-up.” In response, Giuliani said that his “job” is to “keep alerting the American people to this.” Giuliani also suggested that when Democrats in Pennsylvania lead in elections, “a lot of it” is due to “phony votes.” He added that “in Philadelphia, if you don't cheat you're not allowed to eat,” and that during the 2024 election, “If we stay active in that process, we'll be able to observe a lot of the cheating.” [YouTube, America's Mayor Live, 5/15/24]

  • Giuliani said that during the 2020 election in Georgia, “they were using phony ballots that they had printed up after the election.”

    Giuliani claimed that “Governor Kemp would never allow us to look at a single piece of paper.” [YouTube, America's Mayor Live, 5/16/24]

  • Giuliani and his guest alleged the 2020 election was full of “shenanigans” and stolen.

    When guest Maria Ryan, who is a co-host for one of Giuliani’s other shows, asserted that there were “shenanigans in the 2020 elections,” Giuliani agreed, adding, “They stole it.” [YouTube, America's Mayor Live, 5/17/24]

  • Giuliani said his “contention” is that “the 2020 election in Georgia was fixed.”

    Giuliani’s co-host, Maria Ryan, suggested that election workers “xeroxed” ballots and “it all was for Biden.” She also baselessly claimed that “Trump probably did win three or four states that went to Biden in 2020.” [YouTube, Uncovering the Truth, 5/19/24]

  • Giuliani called on his audience to watch his show on YouTube to “send a message to WABC that you want news that comes out about the 2020 election because it might help prevent cheating in the 2024 election.”

    Giuliani also listed supposed examples of fraud, including “news like 375,000 ballots are missing in Georgia, news like 3,000 ballots were discovered double-counted.” Notably, these claims have been debunked by elections officials as well as news outlets. [YouTube, America's Mayor Live, 5/20/24; USA Today, 5/23/24; The Associated Press, 11/28/23]

  • Giuliani said that in polling for the 2024 election, Trump is “ahead in every one of the swing states, which happen to be the states that were stolen from him last time.”

    Giuliani added: “Funny that he's ahead in all those states, right? And that he was ahead in all those states when they stopped counting, and then they kept counting and it all turned around. And now they have lost 375,000 of the paper ballots in Georgia. Could they be the phony paper ballots?” [YouTube, America's Mayor Live, 5/21/24]

  • Giuliani suggested that there is “solid enough evidence” to suggest that Democrats are “printing up just as many ballots as you need to win.”

    Giuliani added that in “every place [Trump] was losing, they cut the counting. And then after a period of time, depending on how many votes they had to produce, Biden won.” [YouTube, The Rudy Giuliani Show, 5/22/24]

  • Giuliani lamented that “about ten million people” have crossed the border “since the day the crooked election ended and Biden was put into office.”

    Giuliani claimed that people had only crossed the border “because we made the terrible mistake of making him president — or maybe we didn't make that mistake,” adding, “I'd like to think we actually weren't that dumb and they did cheat.” [YouTube, America's Mayor Live, 5/23/24]

  • Giuliani claimed that “cheating happened” in 2020.

    Giuliani said that in the 2020 election, “A lot of the cheating happened because they were involved and we weren't,” seemingly referring to Democrats. [YouTube, America's Mayor Live, 5/24/24]

  • Giuliani asserted that “if you try to block out and practice denial of 2020, you're going to just repeat it all over again.”

    Giuliani ranted that WABC “wanted to impose a restriction of not being able to discuss the 2020 election.” [YouTube, Uncovering the Truth, 5/26/24]

  • Giuliani argued that “if we get cowered into not talking about the 2020 election, they're going to feel much more empowered to cheat heavily in 2024.”

    Giuliani went on to declare that Democrats are “going to cheat in 2024” because “Democrats have probably cheated in every election since Boss Tweed.” He added, “It's a crooked party; crooked parties cheat.” [YouTube, The Rudy Giuliani Show, 5/27/24]

  • Giuliani told his audience that “one of the things we have to do is use examples from the 2020 election so that we prevent that from happening again in 2024.”

    Giuliani also complained that WABC was “trying to take away from us the ability to raise the election fraud.” [YouTube, America's Mayor Live, 5/28/24]

  • Giuliani declared that “unless there is some cheating going on, Trump's going to win” the 2024 election.

    Giuliani added, “What really is fascinating is he's leading in all the ones they stole. Which really kind of indicates the legitimate vote there was for him, not for Biden. But, you know, we'll leave that to another day. You know, that's why I'm no longer on WABC — because I'm not allowed to say things like that on WABC.” [YouTube, The Rudy Giuliani Show, 5/29/24]

  • Giuliani said that the hush money trial verdict was a “political prosecution intended for the purpose of rigging the 2024 election.”

    Giuliani added, “These are the kinds of verdicts that occur in dictatorships and Third World and banana republic governments.” [YouTube, America's Mayor Live, 5/30/24]

  • Giuliani complained that, under WABC’s rules, he couldn’t bring “the new facts that support the fact that the election was fixed” in 2020.

    Giuliani cited “the 175,000 missing votes” and “a legislative report from Georgia,” which he claimed was “demonstrating how the election was fixed.” [YouTube, Uncovering the Truth, 6/2/24]

  • Giuliani claimed that it’s “clear that the [2020] election was stolen.”

    Giuliani said that, since the 2020 election, “A lot of these revelations have now come out which makes it clear that the election was stolen.” [YouTube, America's Mayor Live, 6/3/24]

  • Giuliani baselessly suggested that there were intentionally “ineligible voters” on the rolls in Arizona in 2020 and 2022.

    Giuliani claimed that “people move and they stay registered there for 10, 12 years. Why? So the crooked Democratic party can vote them, and they hook them up with a phony registration. And they did it enough to turn around the election of 2020 and get the electoral votes in Arizona.” [YouTube, America's Mayor Live, 6/4/24]

  • Giuliani said that ballots were “hidden” in “Pennsylvania or in Georgia and other places where you had less than honorable people.”

    Giuliani said it’s necessary to “get the count right away and then you could go back and check it. And failure to prosecute these people has given the impression you can get away with it.” [YouTube, The Rudy Giuliani Show, 6/5/24]

  • Giuliani declared, “It certainly was a fraudulent election.”

    Giuliani said that “whether you buy or you don't buy the stolen election thing, it certainly was a fraudulent election.” [YouTube, The Rudy Giuliani Show, 6/6/24]

  • Giuliani claimed that the investigations and legal cases against Trump were part of “a massive election interference conspiracy” to keep Trump from winning the 2024 election.

    Giuliani specifically accused Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, and Special Counsel Jack Smith of “working on a massive election interference conspiracy.” Giuliani also said that Bragg “sits in court with half his staff, and they're working on a massive election interference conspiracy and they are one part of it. Fani the ho is another part of it, and Smith the unscrupulous federal prosecutor, who has been designated as such by the Supreme Court, which is the reason why Garland selected him — so he can do the same frame-up of Trump.” [YouTube, The Rudy Giuliani Show, 6/7/24]

  • Giuliani claimed that Biden is only president because he “obtained it by fraud.”

    He also complained that people “get annoyed about election fraud.” [YouTube, Uncovering the Truth, 6/9/24]

  • Giuliani baselessly claimed that “the capacity for cheating is well known” in Arizona.

    The comments came as Giuliani celebrated that Trump was leading Biden in Arizona polls. [YouTube, America’s Mayor Live, 6/10/24]

  • Giuliani said that Democrats “cheat” in elections.

    After Giuliani said that Republicans have more “enthusiasm” and are more motivated to turn out for elections, he asserted that “this is why they cheat,” seemingly in reference to Democrats. [YouTube, The Rudy Giuliani Show, 6/11/24]

  • Giuliani argued that “the fraud in the 2020 election has to be addressed if you don't want it to repeat itself in 2024.”

    Giuliani added, “We can't be stopped from talking about it, as, you know, they try to do with me.” [YouTube, The Rudy Giuliani Show, 6/12/24]

  • Giuliani said that Biden’s national security advisor's “job exists only because of several frauds that they carried out.”

    Giuliani said that Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, “knows that his job exists only because of several frauds that they carried out.” [YouTube, America's Mayor Live, 6/13/24]

  • Giuliani said that “there was so much fraud” in the 2020 election.

    Giuliani claimed that the fraud occurred “both before and during and after the election.” [YouTube, America's Mayor Live, 6/14/24]

  • Giuliani said that the “world that we live in” was given to us by “their fraudulent election of Joe Biden.”

    Giuliani complained about making “sense” of the “world that we live in” that “American people - not us” created “with their fraudulent election of Joe Biden.” [YouTube, America's Mayor Live, 6/17/24]

  • Giuliani decried “the fraud of the 2020 election.”

    Giuliani declared that a woman who was allegedly murdered by an undocumented immigrant “would be alive if we hadn't had the fraud of the 2020 election.” [YouTube, America's Mayor Live, 6/18/24]

  • Giuliani asserted that “there would be a couple hundred thousand Ukrainians alive if” Biden “hadn't committed a fraud and become president.”

    Giuliani added, “Let's make sure it doesn't happen again.” [YouTube, The Rudy Giuliani Show, 6/19/24]

  • Giuliani said “all the states that were stolen” in 2020 “took an exorbitant amount of time — because that's how you steal them, you keep slipping votes in.”

    He continued, “I'm telling you that they put in phony paper for absentee ballots. I’m telling you that. They did.” [YouTube, The Rudy Giuliani Show, 6/20/24]

  • Giuliani said that “the reason I left [WABC] is because something new had just come up on the 2020 election … which to me is a smoking gun.”

    Giuliani said that “the discovery of 375,000 missing ballots in Georgia” was “a smoking gun,” asking, “Why would they destroy 375,000 ballots if they never would let us see the ballots in the first place?” [YouTube, The Rudy Giuliani Show, 6/21/24]

  • After a guest suggested that “they're going to try and steal” the 2024 election, Giuliani replied, “In Detroit? Of course they're going to try it.”

    Giuliani also claimed that “the Democrats are proud of how they can cheat in Philadelphia.” [YouTube, America's Mayor Live, 6/24/24]

  • Giuliani suggested the 2020 election was “stolen.”

    Discussing the then-upcoming presidential debate, Giuliani questioned if it was the appropriate time to discuss “the 2020 election being stolen.” [YouTube, America's Mayor Live, 6/25/24]

  • Giuliani said that the 2024 Trump campaign “has done a lot of very good things, but they haven't come up against the cheating machine” like the 2020 campaign did.

    He added, “Well, we have come up against the cheating machine, and we have a lot of thoughts about how you deal with it.” [YouTube, America's Mayor Live, 6/28/24]

  • Giuliani declared, “The election was stolen.”

    He added, “I believe I can prove it to you, if you wouldn't try to chop my head off, or put me in jail, or put me in bankruptcy, or do all the things you're doing to me.” [YouTube, America's Mayor Live, 7/1/24]

  • Giuliani claimed to have evidence that “the election of 2020 was stolen,” but said “the courts wouldn't take it because they didn't want to get their hands dirty.”

    Giuliani also claimed that in “Michigan, at three o’clock in the morning, a sanitation truck, or two of them, came in with 150,000 ballots.” [YouTube, America's Mayor Live, 7/2/24]

  • Giuliani claimed that “they lied to you about the election” in 2020.

    He said, “One of the things that I'm charged with is: I alleged that a truck with a whole bunch of ballots was brought to Pennsylvania. That guy is available to testify because he recanted his testimony and I think said he had been very much strong-armed by the FBI.” [YouTube, America's Mayor Live, 7/3/24]

  • Giuliani said that Americans were “defrauded into making Biden the president.”

    Giuliani then concluded that it is “guaranteed those people in Ukraine didn't have to die if we didn't get defrauded into making Biden the president.” [YouTube, America's Mayor Live, 7/4/24]

  • Giuliani referred to the 2020 election as “the fraud of the first time we elected” Biden.

    Giuliani claimed that there was a “cover-up” by the media of Hunter Biden’s hard drive “which led to the fraud of the first time we elected him [Biden] and the death of all the people in Ukraine.” [YouTube, America's Mayor Live, 7/5/24]

  • Giuliani declared that Trump “won in 2020.”

    He added, “I will not be convinced that I'm wrong until you show me the paper. Sorry. You want to hide the paper on me, I got to believe there's something wrong with it.” [YouTube, America's Mayor Live, 7/9/24]

  • Giuliani suggested that noncitizens would vote in the 2024 election.

    During a monetized stream, Giuliani said: “198 Democrats in the House of Representatives believe that noncitizens should vote in your elections, and you’re going to vote for them? What, do you belong to some other country? I would think Republican or Democrat, we should all agree that in order to vote you got to have a stake in the country, which is citizen.” [YouTube, America's Mayor Live, 7/11/24, accessed 7/24/24]

  • Giuliani said that “the 300,000 people that are dead in Ukraine — and the 300,000 Russians — would all be alive if they hadn't cheated and put Biden in the White House.”

    Giuliani then claimed that “the guy never would have attacked under Trump.” [YouTube, America's Mayor Live, 7/12/24]

    Clarification (11/6/24): This piece has been updated with clarifying language.