Mehdi Hasan Responds After ‘Beeper’ Comment by CNN Guest: ‘So Stunned’

Progressive commentator and journalist Mehdi Hasan said that he was “so stunned” when a conservative commentator told him, “I hope your beeper doesn’t go off,” during a panel on CNN.

The statement was made on Monday night by Ryan Girdusky during a segment on CNN anchor Abby Phillip’s show while a group of panelists debated the racist and inflammatory remarks hurled on Sunday at former President Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally.

Girdusky’s phrase appears to be a reference to Israel’s attack in September involving rigged pagers that targeted the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. The strike killed dozens of people and injured thousands of others, including civilians and children.

Hasan, a Muslim and frequent critic of Israel, said on Wednesday in a video message shared on X, formerly Twitter, that while he has “interviewed” and “sparred with controversial, opinionated, offensive people from across the world … never in my 25 years as a journalist, and 15 years of doing live TV, have I been so stunned by what was said to me.”

“But as shocked and stunned as I was, there was no way I was going to let him say that to me unchallenged,” Hasan added.

He said that he was happy to see CNN decide to ban Girdusky from appearing on air and that Phillip took the time to apologize to viewers “after I walked off set.” Hasan left the panel on Monday voluntarily after the offensive comment, while Girdusky was asked to leave during a commercial break.

Phillip launched the discussion on Monday by playing a compilation of clips from Trump’s controversial New York City rally, where speakers made incendiary statements against Hispanics, Black people, Jews and Palestinians. Some speakers also made sexist remarks toward Vice President Kamala Harris and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who ran against Trump in 2016.

The rally followed reports last week of former Trump officials, such as John Kelly, ex-White House chief of staff, telling reporters that Trump repeatedly praised Nazi Germany dictator Adolf Hitler while in office. Hasan said during CNN’s panel that he gets “nobody wants to be called Nazis,” but that “if you don’t want to be called Nazis, stop” hurling rhetoric.

Girdusky backed the former president and instead raised issues with “the media” calling “everyone who attended” Trump’s rally “a fascist.” During a back-and-forth with Hasan, the conservative commentator said, “Yeah, well, I hope your beeper doesn’t go off.”

Girdusky apologized on air shortly after making the remark. He also posted to his X account later Monday, “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 reached out to Girdusky via X and through his political action committee, the 1776 Project, for comment.

Some conservatives have come to Girdusky’s defense in light of him getting booted from CNN’s guest list. Florida Republican U.S. Representative Brian Mast posted a clip of the exchange on X and wrote that Hasan “spews antisemitism every day and calls Trump supporters Nazis, but God forbid anyone make a joke in his presence.”

“He and CNN got triggered worse by a beeper than all of Hezbollah,” Mast added.

California U.S. Representative Darrell Issa, a fellow Republican, posted to X late Monday night that he watched some of Phillip’s panel but that it “wasn’t easy.”

“Thought [Girdusky] brought a lot to the program,” he added.

Hasan strongly condemned Harris’ policies toward the Israel-Hamas conflict in his video message on Wednesday but raised an even bigger warning about a second Trump presidency should the former president win on November 5.

“If she [Harris] loses—and to be clear, because of her refusal to budge even an inch on Gaza …—we will get a Trump presidency,” Hasan said. “A white supremacist presidency, an anti-Black, antisemitic, Islamophobic presidency, in which people like the bigot I had to deal with on CNN will be emboldened like never before.”

Update 10/30/24, 10:47 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information and background.