CNN bans right-wing guest over 'vile attack' on Mehdi Hasan
www.newarab.com
A CNN panelist was removed from Abby Phillip's show after making a controversial remark to pro-Palestine journalist Mehdi Hasan.

A right-wing panelist was removed from CNN anchor Abby Phillip’s show on Monday after a “vile attack” he made against journalist and political commentator Mehdi Hasan on the show.

Conservative commentator Ryan Girdusky, founder of the anti-critical race theory the 1776 Commission, told Hassan: “I hope your beeper doesn’t go off” during a discussion on the rhetoric from former President Donald Trump’s New York City rally on Sunday.

“Did you just say I should die?” Hasan asked in apparent disbelief. “Did you just say I should be killed on live TV?”

“No, I did not say that,” Girdusky responds.

“You said you hope my beeper doesn’t go off,” Hasan pointed out.

Girdusky asked Hasan if he supported the Palestinian armed group Hamas, to which Hasan responded that he supported Palestinians.

Hassan then said: “This is America in 2024… […] Forget the racism. It’s I should die.”

  • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOP
    23·
    16 days ago

    Also from the article if you missed it last month:

    Last month, hundreds of pagers reportedly held by suspected Hezbollah members across Lebanon exploded in an attack widely believed to have been carried out by Israel. At least 37 people were killed, including two children and medics, with thousands more injured.

    • pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online
      37·
      15 days ago

      No, I read the article. But saying, “I hope your beeper doesn’t go off,” is saying the opposite of, “I hope you die.”

      I’m not defending him; he absolutely should have been fired for his overt and unabashed racism. I just don’t get how you get from point a to b here.

      • 4am@lemm.ee
        111·
        15 days ago

        Then you are quite obtuse, unintentionally or not.

        The insinuation is that he supports Hamas, and therefore is a target of the Israeli government’s supply-chain terror attack. Therefore the hope that “his beeper doesn’t go off” is meant to be a slight against his choice to support Palestinians.

        The fucked up parts are as follows:

        1. assumption that all supporters of Palestinians are supporters of Hamas and/or their actions on October 7th, and therefore any criticism of Israel’s actions is an explicit antisemitic attack on Judaism itself
        2. Assertion that Israel was right and just to target Hezbollah operatives with the pager attack, even though it was reckless (and in fact killed and maimed innocents, and committed an act of war away from any battlefield)
        3. Flippantly dismissing a person by basically saying “you’re next”; by basically saying “for your opinion, a foreign government should sneak a bomb into your personal electronics and explode your family at home, better hope it doesn’t happen”

        And don’t you dare try to say that takes it too far, because that’s exactly what that “joke” implies. What else COULD it mean? Only mental gymnastics could attempt to explain it away.

        • pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online
          26·
          15 days ago

          I mean, I took it as him calling the dude a terrorist because of the reasons stated above, but that’s not the same as saying, “you should die”

          Again, horribly bigotted and a very good reason to fire him. It’s just a weird logical jump to go to that instead of calling him out on saying he’s a terrorist for siding with Palestinians and being Muslim.

      • JakenVeina@lemm.eeEnglish
        14·
        15 days ago

        Yeah, I was thinking the same thing, when I first heard this story. He’s not saying he hopes Mehdi dies, he made an extremely cavalier joke about him dying. Just as bad, but, y’know, not as good of a sound bite.