CNN Defends Homophobe Mehdi Hasan for ‘Nazi’ Slurs, Bans Gidursky for ‘Pager’ Joke

CNN defended homophobic radical commentator Mehdi Hasan, who referred to Republicans as Nazis, by banning conservative commentator Ryan Gidursky for responding with a joke about Hasan being a terrorist with a “pager.”

Hasan apologized in 2019 for homophobic statements he made in Islamic sermons earlier in his career, in which he referred to gays and non-Muslims as “cattle,” saying his remarks were taken out of context but were also “ill-judged.”

Hasan retained his radical left-wing views on other issues, and his extreme anti-Israel opinions proved to be too much for MSNBC, which canceled his weekend show last year in the wake of the October 7 terror attacks by Hamas.

On Monday night, Hasan appeared on a panel discussion hosted by Abby Phillip. The following exchange occurred, in which Hasan called Trump and his supporters Nazis, and Gidursky responded with a joke about Hasan’s “pager” — a reference to the pagers that Hezbollah terrorists carried and that were detonated by Israel.

From CNN’s transcript:

HASAN: He talked about enemy of the people, which is Joseph Goebbels. He talked about the enemy within, which is literally Hitler. I mean, these are the — my problem is, I get it, which nobody wants to be called Nazis. It’s very inflammatory. But if you don’t want to be called Nazis, stop doing —

GIRDUSKY: You’re called an anti-Semite more than anyone in this table. And people —

HASAN: Yes, by you?

GIRDUSKY: No, by me, I never called you an anti-Semite. I mean, I’m not saying —

HASAN: I’m a supporter of the Palestinians. I’m used to it.

GIRDUSKY: Yes. Well, I’m hope your beeper doesn’t go off. The thing is is that —

HASAN: Did you just say I should die?

ALLISON: Oh, wow. You should not —

GIRDUSKY: No, I said — HASAN: Did you just say I should be killed?

GIRDUSKY: No.

(CROSSTALKS)

HASAN: You just said I should get killed on live T.V.

PHILLIP: Guys, let me just stop you there.

CNN later banned Gidursky, according to a report in Mediaite, to which the Polish-American pundit responded on X:

Nazi Germany occupied Poland from 1939 until the end of the Second World War, first dividing it with the Soviet Union and then murdering millions of Polish citizens, particularly Jews but also others, before finally being defeated.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.