For a few moments last night, the low IQ CNN show “CNN Newsnight With Abby Phillip” became must-watch television and an object lesson of why no sane conservative should ever agree to go on any of CNN’s programming.
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The panel, headed by Abby Phillip, who is another of the leftist borg that comprises CNN’s on-air staff, featured Hamas simp Mehdi Hasan, who “resigned” from MSNBC after his show, the eponymous “Mehdi Hasan Show” was canceled; see MSNBC Cancels Pro-Hamas Host Mehdi Hasan’s Show. That show was always in MSNBC’s ratings cellar, but after October 7, Hasan used it as a platform to soft sell and sanitize the genocidal terrorism of Hamas. In my view, the show was canceled at least as much for its pro-terrorism and antisemitic subject material as it was for being a ratings dumpster fire. It also featured conservative pundit Ryan James Girdusky, founder of the 1776 Project PAC.
Scott Taylor, a former Republican congressman from Virginia, CNN commentator Ashley Allison, and Linda Lopez, an anchor and reporter for WINS radio in New York City, rounded out the panel.
Naturally, the subject of Donald Trump’s epic rally in Madison Square Gardens came up; see WATCH: Massive Crowd at Madison Square Garden for Trump Rally Delivers Perfect Response to Dem Insanity. And naturally, the air was chock full of Nazi references.
TAYLOR: Listen, I think emotions are very high. We’re eight days out from the election, right? No question about it. I don’t think either side is innocent of inflammatory rhetoric, for sure. I mean, look what, look what’s happened. I don’t think the president could have expected not to do this massive rally, which quite frankly, was historic, came out there and the media is just, oh, you know, he’s a Nazi, it’s Hitler and all this crazy stuff that they were saying.
So, I think in many respects, that rhetoric is much, much worse than what you just played there.
PHILLIP: Just to be clear, Hitler has entered the conversation because his chief of staff said that Trump, not the media, but Trump was the one who brought up Hitler.
RYAN GIRDUSKY, FOUNDER, 1776 PROJECT PAC: And five people who were there who said it didn’t.
(CROSSTALKS)
PHILLIP: You’re mixing, you’re mixing anecdotes. That’s not what happened.
ASHLEY ALLISON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Actually, Hitler entered the conversation because his running mate actually compared him to Hitler. That’s when it actually entered the conversation years ago.
No, that’s how we brought Hitler into this conversation, because the person that Donald Trump pick to be his running mate compared to him to Hitler. And then he changed his mind. Fine, change your mind. But then somebody else verified.
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Then it got, as the kids say, lit af.
NEW: All h*ll breaks loose after Ryan Girdusky appears to accuse Mehdi Hasan of being a terrorist after Hasan accused Girdusky of being a Nazi.
Pretty insane that this is where we are at right now.
Hasan: If you don’t wanna be called Nazis, stop…
Girdusky: Well, I hope your… pic.twitter.com/e1bOUD1XKA
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 29, 2024
MEHDI HASAN, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF AND CEO, ZETEO: I mean, I’m glad you played that clip. Because all day long, the Trump campaign have been saying, it’s a comedian, it’s a comedian, it’s a comedian. It wasn’t just a comedian. Park the comedian and what he said, and you still have Rudy Giuliani, you still have his childhood friend, you still have his donor saying the pimp handlers. Just one of those people, ten years ago would have ended a Republican campaign. John McCain, Mitt Romney wouldn’t have survived one of those people, right? And these people — there’s so many of them. It’s classic flooding the zone, Steve Bannon style. We can’t even talk about all of them because there’s just too many of them to get through.
In fact, you should give a raise to the producer who had to do that super cut, that they had to sit through all of that. You didn’t even get through all the clips. There was still Tucker Carlson doing replacement. Don Jr. did replacement. And then Trump himself turned up and talked about invading and occupying our country, which is the language of the far right. 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 antisemite more than anyone in this table. And people —
HASAN: Yes, by you?
GIRDUSKY: No, by me, I never called you an antisemite. 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 —
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That is lol funny. Hasan has been trying to normalize Hamas and Hezbollah for years, something he brought to MSNBC from his Al Jazeera days, and it isn’t farfetched to think that Hassan Nasrallah and Yahya al-Sinwar had him on speed dial. The beeper, of course, is a reference to the Israeli operational coup where they decapitated Hezbollah using explosive-laden beepers that Hezbollah had purchased from an Israeli front company and then distributed to key leaders; see BOOM! New Wave of Exploding Devices in Lebanon.
Hasan also has a track record of equating Trump and his supporters to Hitler; see Democrats Are Pretending Trump Is Hitler Again – You Won’t Be Shocked to Learn Why.
Girdusky apologized, but that wasn’t enough.
Sharing @CNN’s statement and a quick message from me about what happened on tonight’s show.
I take this very seriously and want to again apologize to @mehdirhasan and I hope he’ll join us another time. pic.twitter.com/O9l0Ftv5NZ
— Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) October 29, 2024
There is zero room for racism or bigotry at CNN or on our air. We aim to foster thoughtful conferrsations and debate including between people who profoundly disagree with each other in order to explore important issues and promote mutual understanding. But we will not allow guests to be demeaned or for the line of civility to be crossed. Ryan Girdusky willnot be welcomed back at our network.
I nearly threw up in my mouth reading the statement as I recalled the hatefest Jake Tapper hosted after the Parkland School shooting, where he allowed disgraced former Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel to blame Dana Loesch and Florida Senator Marco Rubio for the incident; see CNN’s Lack of Introspection Reaches Stratospheric Levels in Parkland Shooting Court Hearing.
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Hasan has a history of whitewashing terrorism and peddling antisemitism. Hasan called Girdusky a Nazi. Girdusky made a hilarious joke. But Girdusky was fired, and Hasan is the aggrieved party.
This should be an object lesson for any conservative invited on one of the silly discussion shows on either CNN or MSNBC. You are a piñata. You are there as a punching bag. You are there as an object of hate and ridicule. Think of it as the political version of the old-school pro wrestling events. You are the villain. You must lose. So long as you follow the script, take the insults, and accept the lies, you’ve got a job. The moment a terrorist sympathizer calls you Hitler, and you respond, you’re fired.
