CNN Bans Conservative Commentator Over Beeper Remark

CNN headquarters in Atlanta, in a file image. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

A conservative commentator who has seen clips go viral in recent weeks has been banned from CNN after he referenced a beeper during a heated discussion on Oct. 28.

Ryan James Girdusky “will not be welcomed back at our network,” CNN said in a statement.

Girdusky hours earlier had participated in a panel discussion on “NewsNight.” At one point, he told Mehdi Hasan, another panelist, “I hope your beeper doesn’t go off.”

“Did you just say I should die?” Hasan responded.

Members of the terrorist group Hezbollah were killed earlier in the year when beepers, or pagers, exploded in Lebanon.

Host Abby Phillip stopped the discussion and said the comment “cross[ed] the line.”

Girdusky said he apologized. He said he made the remark because he thought Hasan had expressed support for Hamas, another terrorist group, rather than Palestinians in general.

Phillip later told viewers on air that Girdusky had been removed from the panel.

“We want discussion, we want people who disagree with each other to talk to each other,” she said, adding that the comment showed “a complete lack of civility.”

He’s “not welcome back on our air,” Phillip said in a video.

Hasan, a former MSNBC host who is now CEO of Zeteo News, was also not on the panel when the show returned. That was Hasan’s choice, according to Phillip, who said she hopes he returns to the show.

Hasan shared Phillip’s video but has not commented since the show.

CNN said in its statement that it “will not allow guests to be demeaned or for the line of civility to be crossed.” It said that “there is zero room for racism or bigotry at CNN.”

Girdusky wrote on social media platform X: “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. I’m glad America gets to see what CNN stands for.”

Girdusky founded a political action project that says its goal is to elect “reform-minded conservatives who oppose political indoctrination and believe in parental rights, safe and secure schools, fiscal transparency, improving educational standards, promoting transparency, and reversing pandemic-related learning loss.” He has also written for The American Conservative magazine.