After campaign donations from John Catsimatidis, Lawler and D’Esposito used public funds to buy advertising from his radio station

Amid the pro-Palestinian protests that wracked Columbia University’s campus this spring, 77 WABC radio host Sid Rosenberg held his own Israel-boosting counter-demonstration near the school, flanked by two of the most embattled GOP congressmen in New York and the nation: Reps. Mike Lawler and Anthony D’Esposito.

Both Lawler and D’Esposito had recently used their House office budgets to direct tens of thousands of dollars to the conservative talk station – pouring public money into an enterprise belonging to Republican magnate (and former mayoral candidate) John Catsimatidis, who maxed-out contributions to their campaigns.

"I've given to more than 100 candidates, including D'Esposito and Lawler. There was no quid pro quo," Catsimatidis told City & State, when asked about the contributions.

The rally gave Lawler and D’Esposito, who each represent districts that strongly favored President Joe Biden in 2020 and which contain substantial Jewish communities, the opportunity to lash the protesters and Columbia, tout their pro-Israel bona fides and receive glowing coverage from popular English-language Israeli media.

WABC radio promoted the event on its Twitter account and on Catsimatidis’ own radio show, with Rosenberg calling in and loudly lauding both members of Congress. As Rosenberg told it, the event was the idea of actor Michael Rapaport, and two lawmakers and Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman reached out to get involved.

Unmentioned in all this was that five days earlier, 77 WABC had received a $7,003.50 ad purchase from Lawler’s congressional office, as revealed in the most recent House spending reports. This came on top of $6,900 in public funds Lawler had steered to WABC four months prior, for an expense labeled “printing.” Lawler’s team provided materials showing this was a clerical error, and the earlier payment was also for radio spots.

D’Esposito, meanwhile, allocated a whopping $43,137 to 77 WABC from his House budget in the final months of 2023, not long after he became a target of a Democratic attack ad campaign. 

Neither has allocated money from their office budget to any other radio station during their two years in Congress, and both have benefited from Catsimatidis’ largesse: both have received the maximum $6,600 donation from the grocery and real estate mogul this cycle, and Catsimatidis cut another $3,300 to Lawler just a month after his ad buy wrapped – forcing the campaign to reattribute the donation to the billionaire’s wife, an executive at his Red Apple Group conglomerate.

For his part, Catsimatidis maintained that he personally knew nothing about the ad arrangements and that he donated purely out of political conviction and concern for the national welfare.

"I think the fate of America is dependent on what happens on Tuesday,” he said in a phone interview. “They're trying to change the culture of Congress, and I think every seat is important in Washington. And two years ago, the reason the Republicans had a majority and there was more common sense was because of New York State. And I definitely help New York state.”

The exact content and timeslots of the ads held is unclear. In D’Esposito’s case, the ads proved far more costly than the $5,500 that his campaign later paid for 110 spots in August, according to Federal Communication Commission records. Lawler also followed up his office’s outlay with an August campaign ad buy identical to D’Esposito’s, and then a purchase of 108 spots for $25,080.12.

The Columbia rally was neither the first nor last occasion Lawler and D’Esposito would get a platform courtesy of 77 WABC. Lawler has been a guest on the station 17 times, according to FCC records, while D’Esposito has gotten 25 turns – more than any other politicians. Some of these appearances have been on one of the station’s Catsimatidis-hosted programs – but the majority have been with Rosenberg.

The Republican lawmakers said that their offices’ respective ad buys on 77 WABC got the sign-off of the House Communications Standards Commission. And they each maintained that the radio spots were part of a larger multimedia informational campaign. A spokesperson for D’Esposito’s office said that the ad was “aimed at ensuring constituents were aware of the services Congressman D’Esposito makes available to the public via his office,” while a spokesperson for Lawler’s office said the ad was meant “to inform constituents of the good, bipartisan work (Lawler)’s done this Congress.”

Both spokespeople said that 77 WABC has a large audience, which made it a “natural choice,” in the words of the D’Esposito rep, to advertise on. But neither would answer repeated questions about whether their offices even considered advertising on a different station.

In fact, trade publication Inside Radio reported in late 2023 that 77 WABC only reaches about half a million unique listeners across the sprawling, multi-state New York City metro area, making it one of the smaller players in the radio space.

And unlike the broad-audience local newspapers Lawler and D’Esposito also allocated House money to, 77 WABC’s conservative-heavy lineup appeals most to hard-core members of the GOP base, which the self-consciously moderate Lawler and D’Esposito might otherwise lack access to. 

This is especially true of Rosenberg, who opened for former President Donald Trump at Madison Square Garden last month by declaring Democrats to be “degenerates, lowlives, Jew-haters and lowlives, every one of them.” Just days before the Columbia rally, Rosenberg promoted a baseless conspiracy theory that Iran’s drone attack on Israel was the result of “total coordination” between Tehran and the United States. 

When a photo emerged in early October showing Lawler wearing blackface as part of a Michael Jackson get-up at a 2006 Halloween party, Rosenberg hosted him again – and boasted about having darkened his skin for a costume himself. “We all did, I did it too: you know, when you go as a Black man on Halloween, you put on a black face,” Rosenberg said, dismissing complaints about the practice. “For some reason, white people pander to that. I tell them, go eff yourself. If I’m going as a Black guy, I'm making myself Black!”

When Lawler acknowledged the offensive history of minstrel shows, Rosenberg scolded him repeatedly for his apologetic tone. “This is the kind of bullshizzle we allow African-Americans to get away with in this country,” Rosenberg said. 

Lawler has appeared on Rosenberg’s show three times since. The shock jock did not respond to repeated questions about his booking process, his awareness of the ad buys or the Columbia rally.

Besides Lawler and D’Esposito, only one other member of Congress has paid for ads on 77 WABC radio out of their public funds since Catsimatidis acquired the broadcaster: Rep. Andrew Garbarino, who represents a relatively safer Republican seat on Long Island. His office laid out $5,000 to the station while he was running for his second term in April 2022, and then $10,000 at the same time this year.

He too has gotten cash from Catsimatidis: $18,200 over the course of his career. However, unlike Lawler and D’Esposito, he has also booked ads on other stations – and he hasn’t appeared on 77 WABC since 2022.

Garbarino did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Both the D’Esposito and Lawler teams falsely accused City & State of collaborating with their respective Democratic opponents: former Hempstead Town Supervisor Laura Gillen, who is running against D’Esposito, and former Rep. Mondaire Jones, who is running against Lawler. In fact, neither campaign has been in touch with City & State about this story, which did not originate from a tip but resulted from a review of House office budget disbursement reports.