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.
The guest was ousted during a roundtable conversation on CNN NewsNight With Abby Phillip, in which panelists were discussing the controversial language heard during Trump’s rally in Madison Square Garden the day before.
Girdusky said during the segment that “the media” called “everyone who attended” the rally “Hitler” and “a fascist,” and came out in support of the former president. Phillip interrupted Girdusky, 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.”
Girdusky was removed from the conversation following a commercial break.
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 attack resulted in the deaths of dozens of people, with thousands of others injured, according to the Associated Press.
This is a developing story and will be updated as further information becomes available.