CNN Kicks Out Guest Who Told Mehdi Hasan ‘Hope Your Beeper Doesn’t Go Off’

A panelist was kicked off CNN anchor Abby Phillip’s show on Monday after he told another guest, “I hope your beeper doesn’t go off” while discussing the rhetoric spread at former President Donald Trump’s New York City rally on Sunday.

The comment was made by conservative commentator Ryan Girdusky, founder of the 1776 Project political action committee, toward Mehdi Hasan, a progressive commentator who is of Indian descent and Muslim.

Trump’s event in Madison Square Garden has received immense backlash after several speakers made inflammatory or racist comments on stage. The controversy follows reports last week of Trump’s former chief of staff, John Kelly, and others who served in the Trump administration who said that the former president repeatedly praised Nazi Germany dictator Adolf Hitler.

Girdusky said during a heated roundtable discussion on CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip that “the media” has called “everyone who attended” Trump’s rally “Hitler” and “a fascist,” and came out in support of the former president.

Phillip interrupted Girdusky’s comments, and said, “That did not happen.” Hasan then commented on Trump’s rally, and attacked the comments made by speakers like comedian Tony Hinchcliffe and others, which he said were using “language of the far right.”

“My problem is, I get it, nobody wants to be called Nazis. It’s very inflammatory,” Hasan said, adding, “if you don’t want to be called Nazis, stop” hurling rhetoric.

Girdusky shot back toward Hasan: “You’ve been called an antisemite more than anyone at this table,” to which Hasan said, “By people like you … I’m in support of the Palestinians, I’m used to it.”

Girdusky rejected that he had ever called Hasan an antisemite, adding: “Yeah, well, I hope your beeper doesn’t go off.”

Hasan has been an avid critic of Israel’s military response to the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023. Girdusky’s comments appear to be in reference to an attack involving rigged pagers that Israel carried out in September against the militant group Hezbollah. The strike killed dozens of people, with thousands of others injured, including some civilians and children, according to the Associated Press.

Girdusky later apologized but was removed from the conversation after a commercial break. Phillip also told viewers that she wanted “to apologize to Mehdi Hasan” after the commercial break and that the comment by Girdusky “was completely unacceptable.”

“There is a line that was crossed there, and it’s not acceptable to me,” she said on air. “It’s not acceptable to us 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.”

Hasan also did not return to Phillip’s panel after the commercial break. Phillip said in a video message to X, formerly Twitter, after the show that CNN did not ask Hasan to leave and that she hopes he “joins us again soon.” Hasan reposted Phillip’s statement to his own X account.

CNN also released a statement after the incident, saying there “is zero room for racism or bigotry” on their air and that Girdusky “will not be welcomed back at our network.”

Girdusky posted to his X account late Monday night: “You can stay on CNN if you falsely call every Republican a Nazi and have taken money from Qatar-funded media. Apparently you can’t go on CNN if you make a joke. I’m glad America gets to see what CNN stands for.”

Newsweek has sent a message to Girdusky’s PAC, 1776 Project, seeking comment on Monday night’s incident.

Phillip launched her discussion on Monday by showing a compilation of clips from Trump’s New York rally. The videos included vulgar remarks made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who said in part early in the night that Puerto Rico was a “floating island of garbage.”

Trump’s campaign told Newsweek that the joke “does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.”

Hinchcliffe also said during his speech on Sunday, “When it comes to Israel and Palestine, we are all thinking the same thing. Settle your stuff already. Best out of three. Rock, paper, scissors. You know the Palestinians are going to throw rock every time.”

Phillip also played a clip of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s former personal attorney, saying during the rally: “Palestinians are taught to kill us at 2 years old … and [Vice President Kamala Harris] wants to bring them to you.”

Former Republican U.S. Representative Scott Taylor of Virginia was also on Phillip’s panel on Monday and condemned Hinchcliffe’s remarks about Puerto Rico: “I think it fell flat. I think it was the wrong venue to say that.”

When asked by Phillip what he thinks about “all of the rest” of what was said at Trump’s rally, Taylor said, “I think emotions are very high.”

“We’re eight days out from the election, right? I don’t think either side is innocent of inflammatory rhetoric, for sure,” Taylor added, saying that he thinks the rhetoric about Trump’s rally resembling a Nazi rally “is much, much worse than what you just played.”

Update 10/29/24, 12:26 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information and background.