Conservative commentator Ryan Girdusky has been banned from CNN after making a racist on-air comment to journalist Mehdi Hasan that referenced the deadly pager attack in Lebanon last month.
Monday night’s contentious panel on “CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip” featured Hasan, Girdusky and other guests discussing Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday. Hasan, an outspoken critic of Israel’s military conduct in Gaza and a former MSNBC anchor, stated that he supports Palestinians, to which Girdusky said offhandedly, “Well, I hope your beeper doesn’t go off.”
Lebanon’s health minister said at least 37 people, including two children, were killed in last month’s attack with exploding pagers and walkie-talkies, which is widely believed to have been conducted by Israel. Thousands of civilians and Hezbollah militants were injured.
Girdusky’s comment received immediate pushback by some of the guests on the show, as well as from the host, Phillip, who said it was “completely out of pocket.”
“Then I apologize,” he responded. “I thought he said Hamas; I apologize.”
The show went to commercial break shortly after, and when it returned, Phillip told viewers that Girdusky crossed “the line of a complete lack of civility” and had been removed from the show. CNN soon issued a statement saying there is “zero room for racism or bigotry at CNN or on our air” and that Girdusky “will not be welcomed back at our network.”
Girdusky to Hasan: I hope your beeper doesn’t go off pic.twitter.com/YmHhYnkDZ3
— Acyn (@Acyn) October 29, 2024
Girdusky is not the kind of right-wing figure notorious for making incendiary remarks that gain widespread attention. But he is not an unknown entity, either.
Girdusky is the founder of 1776 Project PAC, a right-wing group aimed at stacking school boards across the country with conservatives “who oppose political indoctrination.” He sits on the board of American Moment, a public policy organization that has ties to Project 2025. Girdusky has said he’s friends with Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, and he has appeared on Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes’ podcast.
This also wasn’t the first time Girdusky has made inflammatory claims on CNN.
This also wasn’t the first time Girdusky has made inflammatory claims on CNN. Just a few weeks ago on Phillips’ show, he claimed without evidence that the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 after George Floyd’s murder by police “resulted in excess of over 15,000 Black male deaths in this country” due to “the surge of violent crime.”
Despite his repeated apologies on Monday’s show, Girdusky later changed his tune, writing in part on X: “Apparently you can’t go on CNN if you make a joke.”
