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Former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan has spoken for the first time since being involved in an incident involving racially charged language by Ryan Girdusky on CNN.
The Zeteo News founder addressed the situation in a video published to his X account, saying the situation in which Girdusky essentially called him a terrorist was a first.
“I have interviewed, debated, and sparred with controversial, opinionated, offensive people from across the world — sitting presidents and prime ministers, former directors of the CIA and Mossad, Trump officials, Biden officials, a Netanyahu spokesman, a Hamas spokesman, an IRA leader, and Vivek Ramaswamy — but never, never, in my 25 years as a journalist and 15 years of doing live TV, have I been so stunned by what was said to me that I had to walk offset in the middle of a live show,” Hasan said.
He shared that he was proud of his immediate reaction and defense of the comment from Girdusky. Mehdi Hasan added that he was appreciative of the response not just from NewsNight anchor Abby Phillip, but from CNN, too.
“As shocked and stunned as I was, there was no way I was going to let him say that to me, unchallenged. I’m glad to see CNN has since banned him from their airwaves, and I appreciate host Abby Phillip apologizing to the viewers, and to me, after I walked off set.”
CNN did ban Ryan Girdusky from appearing on the network after the incident on Monday evening. He had been a contributor to the network and to Phillip’s show, but had appeared less than 10 times before he was removed due to the incident with Hasan.
