Politics
WATCH: CNN Bans Guest From Network On Live TV After Chaotic Back-And-Forth
A CNN panel broke the mold Monday night when a conservative guest tangled with former MSNBC anchor Mehdi Hasan to such a degree that he was pulled off the air during a commercial break.
Clips of the hostile exchange circulating on X show conservative author Ryan Girdusky debating Hasan over the merits of remarks made at former President Donald Trump’s New York rally. Hasan and other liberal commentators have openly compared Sunday’s event at Madison Square Garden to a 1939 rally held there by pro-Nazi sympathizers. “You couldn’t even get through all the clips,” he told host Abby Phillip, referencing many of the controversial statements by guest speakers at Trump’s rally that included Tucker Carlson and comedian Tony Hinchcliffe. Trump himself “talked about ‘enemy of the people’ which is Joseph Goebbels. He talked about ‘the enemy within’ which is literally Hitler,” Hasan said. In the background, Girdusky’s disgust could be heard. “Come on,” he muttered.
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Jumping in, Girdusky replied, “You’re called an antisemite more than anyone at this table,” to which Hasan shot back “by you” and added that, as a “supporter of the Palestinians,” he is “used to it.”
“Yeah, well I hope your beeper doesn’t go off,” Girdusky shot back, a reference to Israel’s devastating attack against Hezbollah last month when more than 1,000 mobile devices carried by its members were detonated. The mood at the table immediately turned darker as other guests ganged up on Girdusky and lumped him in with their attacks on Trump’s rally. “Did you just say I should die?” Hasan asked while the conservative challenged if he is actually a supporter “of Hamas.” Phillip raised her hand and tried to silence the table. “Are you a racist, violent person inside?” the former MSNBC host replied.
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Obama administration alum Ashley Allison came to Hasan’s defense. “I don’t have to call [Girdusky] a Nazi,” she shouted. “You’re saying it for yourself!” Allison declared herself “offended” by Girdusky’s beeper quip and Hinchcliffe’s joke about Puerto Rico being a “floating island of garbage” despite not being Palestinian or Puerto Rican. Phillip and the show’s producers cut it there, taking her evening program to a commercial break. When they returned, a solemn Phillip apologized to her viewers, saying Girdusky had crossed a line.
“I want to apologize to Mehdi Hasan for what was said at this table. It was completely unacceptable. When we get this discussion started you’ll see that Ryan is not at the table. There is a line that was crossed there, and it’s not acceptable to me. It’s not acceptable at this network. We want discussion. We want people who disagree with each other to talk to each other. But when you cross the line of a complete lack of civility, that is not going to happen here on this show,” Phillip said. In a video posted after the show’s conclusion, Phillip said that Girdusky would not be permitted back on the network.
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Left unaddressed were the unrepentant references to Trump as Hitler and thousands of Manhattan MAGA fans as Nazis. Although Girdusky apologized for his quip, none of the other guests or Phillip went on record to say that comparing the former president to history’s most well-known genocidal dictator was inappropriate.