CNN kicks another Trump guest off the the show live after racist rant to Mehdi Hasan " I hope your beeper does not go off"

They think they are being “real”. They know there is an anti-pc growing right now even amongst liberals. Being real does it mean being an asshole. And being an asshole doesn’t mean being racist.

Yeah, but the worst part is these guys are young, they have many more years on the planet to really seed society with their garbage and attitude.

" It was a joke." is the answer to every MAGAt vitriolic line. I guess we should all listen to JD Vance, the arbiter of good taste and all get a sense of humor.

[quote]Sen. JD Vance said Monday that while he hadn't heard the racist jokes made by a comedian at his running mate's New York City rally the previous night, he thinks Americans need to "stop getting so offended." “A comedian told a joke, and I don’t think that’s news worth making,” Vance told a local reporter.

Article.

[quote]CNN says commentator Ryan Girdusky will no longer be welcome on the network after his offensive remark to fellow guest Mehdi Hasan tonight. “There is zero room for racism or bigotry at CNN or on our air,” the network said in a statement shared by host Abby Phillip tonight.

[quote]Earlier tonight on NewsNight with Abby Phillip, Girdusky was ushered off the show during a commercial break after making a crass comment suggesting Hasan was a member of terrorist organization. In a video accompanying CNN’s statement, Philip apologized again for the incident just as she did earlier on her show.

Yeah, here's another joke, MAGA uniform has an update, the white hoods are now red caps.

[quote]the white hoods are now red caps.

You must be out of the loop - black is the new red. A new color cap to sell to the gullible MAGAts, who always want to be the epitome of fashion.

"Then I apologize!"

Words Teacake/Prince-Akeem should always us etc explain why he keeps returning after all his threats of leaving FOREVER!

Hasan is a Hamas apologist, so this fits the classic definition of a gaffe as inadvertently telling the truth.

R7 what in the hell? Go away you fake liberal right winger. You have been exposed. Go away.

baahahahahahahahahahaha!

I went for a cheap shot and you replied quite quickly. Almost Gerg-like speed. As if I was a plate of Cod and you decided I needed prunes.

FUCK the RIGHT OFF!

I'm not fake, nor a right-winger. And the only time I've been exposed today is at a local bar when a drunk friend announced to the room that I had fucked a mutual friend years ago. But also trust me, there's not much more about me that is worth exposing.

In the meantime.... is there a sickle-shaped cell I can introduce you to deliver you your well-earned, frequently wished for death?

R10 I don’t need to know about that wack personal story; you are a right winger bitch. You are defacto, keep harassing posters to keep your name relevant. Boy bye. You have been exposed.

[quote]is there a sickle-shaped cell I can introduce you to

How nice, some of our very own racism. Who needs CNN?

Why do we have to put up with this kind of shit on DL? F&F this, please.

Here's what happened:

Here's the aftermath and apology from CNN:

CNN invites these racist Trumpers on, and then gets offended when they say racist shit.

A cable news discussion on “CNN Newsnight with Abby Phillip” on Monday night took a shocking turn when conservative panelist Ryan Girdusky attacked journalist Mehdi Hasan, leading to the former to get banned from the network.

During a discussion about Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday, Girdusky told Hasan “I hope your beeper doesn’t go off,” referencing the recent Israeli attacks against members of the terrorist group Hezbollah in which explosives were detonated in pagers. The comment came after Hasan said that he is a “supporter of the Palestinians.”

Hasan, a journalist who is Muslim and is the founder and editor-in-chief of Zeteo News, was shocked by the statement, asking, “Did you just say I should die?”

Hassan is a Jew hating apologist for Hamas. Look up his history of remarks about LGBT folks.

Please explain the racial differences between the two men. Islam is not a race.

What do we know about this right-winger Ryan Girdusky? He pings to me.

R17: as instructed - I looked up his history of remarks about LGBT folks.

Here's some links:

Here's another link to an article he wrote:

Another link:

I don't know much about him but it seems like he was very anti-gay in the past and has completely rethought his position and biases. I'm no fan of appalling Muslim attitudes and treatment towards gay people (pretty much the same as American Christian attitudes towards gay people) but I would much prefer someone who has done some difficult introspection and come to a different perspective about gay people than someone who just spews hate about us R17. I have a lot of respect for someone who is able to go through that journey and come out the other side a seemingly better person.

And frankly, anyone who is surprised that Muslims support Palestinian people or that Jews support Israeli people is a braindead moron R17. That they would support their own kind is to be completely expected.

The crux of this entire problem is religion on all sides. All three Abrahamic religions are as bad as each other and are responsible for a great deal of the ills, pain and suffering in the world. Both now and back through history. Humanity would be infinitely better off without religion. Without opposing religions all desperately praying to the same made-up God - the horrific situation in the middle east wouldn't even exist.

Keith Edwards is correct in his analysis above -- Trump is the one who opened a Pandora's box back in 2016 and helped enable so many people today to say the most hateful, racist things that they feel like saying. Trump has had a huge effect on worsening the entire discourse in the U.S.

100% spot on R23. And not just in the US. Trump's appearance has encouraged and emboldened bigots in other major western countries to emulate his behaviours in saying incredibly, racist, homophobic, xenophobic, misogynistic and other nasty things. Then people act on those things. Trump has had a huge effect on worsening the entire discourse in other countries too.

As others have said, gay people in particular should appreciate Medhi Hasan is a social conservative with similar views to women, gays and Jews as Mel Gibson.

Because he's a Muslim he's not judged in the same way, but this is a man who would happily see abortion and same sex marriage rights overturned.

And to anyone saying "he's changed his mind" - read his grovelling letter to Paul Dacre, the then editor of the Daily Mail when Hasan pitched the idea of him becoming a regular columnist for them.

That's the Daily Mail which is banned from Datalounge.

Hasan's words

[quote]Although I am on the left of the political spectrum, and disagree with the Mail’s editorial line on a range of issues, I have always admired the paper’s passion, rigour, boldness and, of course, news values. I believe the Mail has a vitally important role to play in the national debate, and I admire your relentless focus on the need for integrity and morality in public life, and your outspoken defence of faith, and Christian culture, in the face of attacks from militant atheists and secularists

[quote]For the record, I am not a Labour tribalist and am often ultra-critical of the left – especially on social and moral issues, where my fellow leftists and liberals have lost touch with their own traditions and with the great British public.

[quote]I am also attracted by the Mail’s social conservatism on issues like marriage, the family, abortion and teenage pregnancies.

The reference to "marriage "and "the family" is about the pledge of Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron, with support from coalition partner the Liberal Democrats and opposition party Labour, to introduce same sex marriage.

We are getting off track here. The issue is Ryan Girdusky's conduct. We can talk about Hasan's social conservatism on some issues in another thread.

I don't know why I'm doing this because I don't know anything about Hasan or really care about him but I'm very anti misinformation R25.

So I googled Hasan + gay marriage and this popped up at the top of the search results. Apparently, in the past few years (2020) he has changed his mind on the issue of gay marriage.

I still find it very unpleasant that he probably thinks gay people are disgusting and an abomination to God and I'm not going to defend that or him. But how is that any different from the average American Christian's beliefs which they regularly remind us gays of?

Was that before 2020 R26?

I also googled Hasan + abortion and he has changed his mind on that too.

From his Wiki page: "In a 2020 series of tweets, Hasan expressed regrets for "having expressed offensive & illiberal views in the past on everything from homosexuality to abortion" and stated that they were views he no longer holds".

Yeah, Hasan apologised for his long held social conservative views just before getting a job at MSNBC.

He's a fucking grifter.

[quote]We are getting off track here. The issue is Ryan Girdusky's conduct.

Yes you're absolutely correct R27. Sorry. Girdusky's conduct was disgusting and CNN actually showed some backbone for once by banning him from their network. He was there as a MAGA panellist and was defending the Trump Nazi rally - let's not forget that. We all know exactly what MAGA people think about gay people and gay marriage.

Here is his response to being banned from CNN. He's not getting a lot of support in the comments and from some well-known names.

[quote]I still find it very unpleasant that he probably thinks gay people are disgusting and an abomination to God and I'm not going to defend that or him. But how is that any different from the average American Christian's beliefs which they regularly remind us gays of?

This is what I mean about Muslims not being judged in the same way.

"Medhi Hasan is a homophobe BUT......"

YES HASAN HAS THE SAME VIEWS ON GAYS AND WOMEN AS THE MAGA CROWD.

He said he changed his views before taking a job on MSNBC.

Judge him in the same way you would judge a 45 year old Christian for their homophobic and misogynistic religious beliefs.

He attended a fee paying private school and then went to Oxford University in the late 90s early 00s. He's fully integrated into British society and was given multiple media jobs in left wing organisations DESPITE his views being well known.

Stop apologising for religious conservatism when it's coming from brown people.

Returning from break, Abby reassured viewers that “CNN tolerates neither hateration nor holleration. And most certainly not in MY dancery”.

[quote]Stop apologising for religious conservatism when it's coming from brown people.

You [bold]CLEARLY[/bold] didn't bother to read any of my posts R32.

[quote]You CLEARLY didn't bother to read any of my posts [R32].

I read your posts.

You feel uncomfortable about Hasan's homophobia BUT WHATABOUT THE CHRISTIANS EH?

[quote]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.

A perfect example of my post at R3. It's part of the playbook.

[quote]" It was a joke." is the answer to every MAGAt vitriolic line. I guess we should all listen to JD Vance, the arbiter of good taste and all get a sense of humor.

R36 - their tactic is to say anything they want about other people no matter how offensive and then to blame those people if they are offended by it. "It's not us - it's your fault for being offended"...

Hasan called the guy a Nazi.

The guy responded and called him a terrorist.

Not exactly an Alexis Krystle fight was it?

they both seem like complete tools.

[quote]Hasan called the guy a Nazi.

He absolutely didn't. They were talking about the MSG Nazi Trump rally.

Girdusky sits alongside JD Vance on an advisory board for a Heritage Foundation-backed org called American Moment. They also list JD Vance as an emeritus advisor. American Moment is listed as an advisor on the Project 2025 "Presidential Transition Project" website.

Trump brought out the worst in people.

We've had the same neighbor couple for 35 years who never said anything bad about anyone nor towards any community. Perfectly good people (and quite witty to boot). There wasn't a week where we wouldn't cross the street and spend some time at each other's house.

Come 2016 and gradually, and then suddenly, they became MAGA hat wearing people that spent all their time spewing heinous rhetoric against anyone who wasn't like them: against the Jews, the Muslims, the trans, civil servants, teachers, and then eventually the gays (our home!) and even against the Ukrainian elderly lady we accommodated for a couple of weeks at the start of the war while she was on a waiting list for more permanent accommodation, and this for no other reason than her being a "Putin hating" Ukrainian.

We are no longer on speaking terms. Mind you, I live in France. If Trump's vitriolic rhetoric is able to do that to regular French folk, I just cannot fathom how bad it can become for some of you guys who live in one of those dreaded deep-red states.

That's what you get, CNN, for trying to appear fair and balanced by always having a MAGAt on your panel.

Ironically, after kicking him off the air, MAGA is whining and back to calling CNN Libatards.

[quote]Girdusky sits alongside JD Vance on an advisory board for a Heritage Foundation-backed org called American Moment. They also list JD Vance as an emeritus advisor. American Moment is listed as an advisor on the Project 2025 "Presidential Transition Project" website.

And Hasan works for Al Jazeera, the Qatar run organisation run from a country that locks up gay people and women. And the idea that Hasan is there for balance? He's there for ratings, so CNN can clip it and hopefully it will go viral.

Seeing gay men trying to defend a repulsive religious nutjob because he's a Muslim is hilarious.

A reminder: when it comes to these "pundits" you can say they are both arseholes.

OH for F sake, KEEP ON TOPIC R45, this is not the time and place to debate anti-semptic issues or your obsession with Mehdi Hasan, it's about MAGA being kicked of CNN.

Regardless of who Hassan works for, a fellow panelist on CNN wishing him dead is beyond the pale. I would say the same thing if Hassan had been the offender.

This isn't hard.

So back to the main issue, this racist comedian joke is going to be the straw that breaks MAGA I think. It's going to haunt them at least until the election.

LOL R46 - you finished your original post with "MSNBC really screwed up letting Mehdi Hasan go."

So yeah, keep shilling for a homophobic woman hating religious extremist who would see your rights stripped in a heart beat because some MAGA man was mean to him.

I think the main issues is that it was a personal attack while on live TV, not some debate of X. I am sure CNN hosts lay down the rules before they agree to come on the show. They had every right to show him the door.

Grow up R49, people are allowed to change. Mehdi has evolved just like many Democrats did on the gay subject. Maybe you should take a Que from Mehdi and stop flipping out every time you hear someone supports Palestine. And yes, I do like what Mehdi says, he's very progressive now.

"He's very progressive now"

HOWLING!

Babe, he hates you. He hates who you are, he hates what you do with other men, or in your case what you want to do with other men. He would stand back and not say a thing if the Supreme Court stripped same sex couples of all their rights.

He hasn't changed his views about gay people or women, he just did the apology so he could progress his career as a "left wing" Tucker Carlson.

R48, my fear is that it will haunt them to the election and they will win. They are eager to settle scores.

If they win we are all so screwed. Racist jokes will be the least of our problems.

Grow up R52, Mehdi is a LGBT ally now, this is from a year ago.

Great post R42.

[quote] Grow up [R52], Mehdi is a LGBT ally now, this is from a year ago.

Howling!!

I think Hassan is closer to being a gay/lesbian ally than the conservative Catholic Girdusky. I tried to search to see if he's either Opus Dei (like Santorum and the traitor Robert Hansen) or a Trad Catholic, but the glut of articles about this charlatan is too much to wade through right now.

That’s like saying Donald Trump isn’t as as bad a sex offender as Kevin Spacey.

Defending someone’s appalling homophobic and misogyny because they’re on ‘your team’ is what Republicans have been doing forever.

I don't see what he said as racist. He was saying he was pro hamas and that his beeper might go off. He was saying if it is okay to call him Hitler -- a horrible accusation, then why can't he accuse them of being pro hamas?

I think it was just the terrorists who had the beepers that might blow up. Ordinary Palestinians wouldn't have one.

Hezbollah aren’t Palestinians, they are Lebanese.

R60, no one was called Hitler. Hasan said, “ if you don’t want to be called Nazis . . .”, a reference to Trump supporters such as Girdusky. Hasan mentioned being Palestinian and Girdusky snapped “I hope your beeper doesn’t go off.” Obviously, he screwed up even that “joke” since the beeper/pager thing did not involve Palestinians. It came off more as, “all you Arabs are terrorists.”

CNN cannot fold fast enough. Cable news has really helped fuck up this country. Unfortunately now we have shit like Newsmax and One America News Network on streaming.

R60 Please. I'm a Zionist Jew with family in Israel and even I thought what he said was incredibly offensive and Islamaphobic. Hasan's pro-Pali stance doesn't piss me off...I get it. His family is there. I feel the same way about Israel for the same reason.

After reading up on Hasan's LGBT views and his apologies, I was on the fence as to whether he truly believed that or if he needed to backpedal in order to further his career. He admitted he said things in a very bombastic way to get attention.

Because he said all this while in his 20's - I do believe men grow out of that stage and can moderate their views. However anyone with a past of quoting scripture is always going to be suspicious to me.

Let's be clear - he attacked LGBT but ALSO non-Muslims and atheists as well.

How do you go through life with an objective lens and not look at your own religion, which is usually just a ridiculous pack of fairy tales?

Lastly - you know in Islam, it's perfectly acceptable to lie to non-Muslims to advance Islam and religious dominance. So - did he truly moderate his views or is he lying and tell half-truths to promote himself and Islam?

It's shitty that, because of the acceptability of lying - and which I've seen in numerous interviews - I can't accept what Muslims say at face value anymore. I also apply that to anyone who is religious - particularly Christians.

R66, xenophobic nonsense. No one, no matter what their faith, is perfectly truthful but encouraging people to disbelieve all Muslims (billions of people!) makes no sense. Or rather it does if you are a bigot. Hasan, like everyone else, is entitled to be judged as a person not a racist stereotype. Not everyone who is religious is part of an evil conspiracy to take over the world.

R67 - well he was perfectly fine in condemning many types of people in the name of Islam and then suddenly had a change of heart when those views were unpalatable as a journalist.

Not everyone who is religious is part of an evil conspiracy - I grant you that. But every religious person who brings in their religion at every point of discussion and who does not examine their beliefs and still decides their sky fairy - without any evidence or proof - is a valid lens through which to view the world, then they are intellectually dishonest and biased.

And it's not a racist stereotype - look it up. It's perfectly fine in Islam to lie to infidels to further the religion. How can you trust what they say when you know that?

[quote][[R60] Please. I'm a Zionist Jew with family in Israel and even I thought what he said was incredibly offensive and Islamaphobic. Hasan's pro-Pali stance doesn't piss me off...I get it. His family is there. I feel the same way about Israel for the same reason.

Hasan is English - his parents live in England. His family are from India.

He is not Palestinian in any way, shape or form.

[quote]Hasan, like everyone else, is entitled to be judged as a person not a racist stereotype. Not everyone who is religious is part of an evil conspiracy to take over the world.

I judge Hasan an illiberal religious conservative who vocally opposed rights for gay people and women.

Again, Hasan didn't lead some segregated life in a religious vacuum - his family is fully integrated into British society, where abortion was legal before he was born.

He was at Oxford University when the Labour government were elected - Labour upheld their pledge to repeal all the anti gay legislation. Hasan worked in left wing media organisations when Labour introduced gay adoption, civil partnerships, the gender recognition act for trans people.

Despite studying and working alongside women and openly gay people he still held those deeply regressive views.

Sadiq Khan, current mayor of London, was an MP when Hasan was opposing gay rights and women's rights. Khan managed to vote for gay marriage.

Stop treating Muslims as if they don't know any better. Treat like the same religious loons that target abortion clinics.

R69 Wait...I thought he was Arab and had family in Palestine?

[quote][R69] Wait...I thought he was Arab and had family in Palestine?

No, his parents are from India, he was born and grew up in England.

He went to a private school, then Oxford University and then worked extensively in the UK media

CNN with their “both sides” shit invite such trouble. Giving interview and camera time to offensive extremists is beyond the ridiculous.

R72 Huh. Well, in that case I mostly retract my tolerance.

R68, I'm aware that the Quran permits dishonesty in certain circumstances: you can lie to save your life, for example. But arguing that Muslims are generally treacherous liars is in "Protocols of the Elders of Islam" territory.

Here's Hasan with Dawkins talking about religion - and gets to the point I have with any religious people.

Did he deserve the comment on CNN? No. Is he going to milk this forever for Islamophobia? Hell yeah he is.

But his defense of these comments and remarks he made in the late 2000's was that he was in his 20's. No - he was 30 and 9 years out of university.

I don't like him - and perhaps he has changed - but I'm not so sure.