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.”
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.