Explaining Ryan Girdusky's Violent Language on CNN and Why He Was Banned

There was more drama than usual on an Oct. 28 panel on CNN. The panel was on CNN NewsNight and occurred during an exchange between Mehdi Hasan, a left-wing political analyst who has shown sympathy for the Palestinian people, and Ryan Girdusky, a Trump supporter who was defending Israel. During the segment, the panel was discussing Donald Trump's massive Madison Square Garden rally, which has evoked comparisons to a Nazi rally held there in 1939.

During that conversation, the invocation of the word Nazi came up, and Girdusky pointed out that Hasan had been called an antisemite more than anyone on the panel. Hasan said that he supports the Palestinians so he's "used to it." Girdusky then replied, "Yeah, well, I hope your beeper doesn’t go off.” Following that comment, he left the panel, and many wanted to know more about what he meant by it.

Girdusky's comments about Hasan's beeper were a reference to the coordinated attack by Israel on several leaders of Hamas in September 2024. That attack included inducing beepers to explode, which led to the deaths of 13 people and the injuries of many others, including many who were not directly connected to Hamas.

Girdusky's comments were therefore a fairly explicit gesture towards violence, and the panel descended into chaos from there.

When the show returned from a commercial break, both Girdusky and Hasan were no longer on the air. CNN then released a statement about Girdusky's comment, saying that he would not be welcome back on the network.

“There is zero room for racism or bigotry at CNN or on our air," the statement explained.

"We aim to foster thoughtful conversations and debate including between people who profoundly disagree with each other in order to explore important issues and promote mutual understanding," it continued. "But we will not allow guests to be demeaned or for the line of civility to be crossed. Ryan Girdusky will not be welcomed back at our network."

While both Girdusy and Hasan were absent from the panel following the commercial break, but NewsNight host Abby Phillip confirmed in a video following the show that Hasan's decision to leave was personal and that he would be welcomed back.

“I’m sure everyone has seen what happened on the show tonight. I just wanted to address one quick thing," she said. "As you may have seen, Ryan was asked to leave the show, and we’ve put out a statement saying that he’s not welcome back on our air. There is a line here on this program, and it was crossed. But I want to be clear as well that we did not ask Mehdi to not come back. In fact, we really wanted him to come back and finish the show."

“We had a lot to talk to him about, and we really hope that he’ll join us again soon," she added. "But for those of you who are wondering why he didn’t come back, I just want to be super clear that that was not in any way because we didn’t want him back at all, and I won’t speak for him, but I just wanted to make sure that you all knew that that was not what happened there.”