Trump Surrogate Attacks Mehdi Hasan on CNN: “I Hope Your Beeper Doesn’t Go Off”

CNN has a roundtable talk show, CNN NewsNight, hosted by Abby Phillips.  Last night, her guests featured well-known Arab-American journalist and founder of Zeteo, Mehdi Hasan. He was joined by several others most notably, Trump surrogate, Ryan Girdusky.  During a heated exchange, Hasan attacked what he termed the Nazi rhetoric of the Trump Madison Square Garden rally:

 Girdusky: “[But] you’re called an anti-Semite more than anyone else at this table.”

Hasan:”By you.”

Girdusky: “No, I never called you an anti-Semite.”

Hasan: “I’m a supporter of the Palestinians, I’m used to it [being called an anti-Semite].”

Girdusky: “I hope your beeper doesn’t go off.”

He was referring to Israel’s terror attack which murdered and maimed thousands of Hezbbollah fighters, whose pagers exploded in their hands.

An outraged Hasan then said: “Did you just say I should die? Did your guest just say I should be killed on live TV?”

Girdusky denied he’d said that. Phillip then tried to regain control of the discussion. She began to say that she objected to his comments; at which he feigned confusion, saying he “misheard” Hasan say “Hamas.” And then he apologized. Shockingly, Phillips said she “appreciated” that, going on to say it wasn’t sufficient and that he had crossed a line.

Eventually, they went to commercial. When the show returned there were two guests missing. Girdusky had been booted and been declared persona non grata. He would never to return to CNN.  But Hasan was also missing.  He chose to leave the show, no doubt filled with disgust not only at the guest, but at the ambush that he suffered on the program.

Sharing @CNN’s statement and a quick message from me about what happened on tonight’s show.

I take this very seriously and want to again apologize to @mehdirhasan and I hope he’ll join us another time. pic.twitter.com/O9l0Ftv5NZ

— Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) October 29, 2024

Phillip apologized to Hasan after the show returned from break.  But he wasn’t there and it was clear why. CNN and Phillip immediately began damage control. She recorded a short video in which her main goal was to stop speculation that CNN had disinvited both guests. She said that she hoped Hasan would return at some unspecified future time.  But she said this so tentatively that it was clear he’d told her he’d never return to her show, and perhaps to CNN itself.

This may not rise to the gravity of Trump’s MSG rally.  But for many in the Arab and Muslim-American community this will be unforgivable public display of virulent Islamophobia.  It’s what everyone has come to be expect of Trump and his mafia gang.  But for something like this broadcast into millions of American homes by CNN. That is a whole other media sewer level.

Though there have been thousands of vicious arguments on such US TV talk shows over many decades, I don’t know of any in which a guest has essentially called for another to be murdered by a terrorist bomb.  This is an all-new nadir of American talk TV.

CNN released an underwhelming statement undoubtedly prepared by a crisis management consultant. It said it would not “allow guests to be demeans or for the line of civility to be crossed.”  Really.  The beeper jibe was merely “demeaning” and showed a lack of “civility.” That’s the best the network could manage?

Wishing Medhi Hasan to be murdered by an Israeli bomb on CNN air is NOT a “remark.” What an appalling @nytimes choice of words.https://t.co/wJLjmuMlqw

— Tikun Olam 🍉 (@richards1052) October 30, 2024

It’s shocking that the show’s producer invited Girdusky to be on the panel.  Someone who would say something so disgusting has undoubtedly done so before.  That’s why producers are supposed to vet guests. To avoid this car crash of a show.  But Phillip is responsible as well. She is the face of the show and of the network. What she permits on the air is on her.  Neither deserve to have jobs at CNN.

But even if they were fired, that would not fix the problem.  CNN will find replacement who would offer the same Islamophobia and pro-Israel messaging.  The problem is endemic to American media coverage of the Gaza genocide.  You can see that in the headlines reporting the imbroglio.  Girdusky’s statement was called “a remark” and a “comment” and “a joke.”

The bitter irony of Girdusky’s jibe is that pro-Israel social media thugs have been using it for weeks.  It’s a clever joke to them.  Thousands of unsuspecting unarmed Lebanese whose eyes were destroyed in these blasts. And they laugh at their suffering.

If an Israeli and American Jewish guest had been treated this way, there would have been hell to pay.  CNN would have a huge, perhaps fatal scandal on its hands.  The CEO would make a public apology. Then he would be fired.  It could be a gaffe from which the entire network might never recover.  A Roger Ailes moment.

CNN’s response reeked of rank hypocrisy.  But it was just another day in the life of a captive American media entertaining gutter rats like Girudsky.  Giving Donald Trump air time to smear the the nation’s most distinguished Arab-American journalist.  All in a day’s work here on American airwaves.