Photos: YouTube Screenshots
Republicans and right-wing media, which had grown increasingly confident of a Donald Trump victory in recent weeks, found themselves back on their heels following a series of stunningly racist “jokes” made by their MAGA cohorts. Making matters worse for the right, these purposely offensive and dehumanizing swipes have only served to strengthen the accusations that Trump and his allies are embracing fascism.
In the wake of right-wing podcaster Tony Hinchcliffe’s much-denounced warm-up speech at Trump’s Madison Square Garden (MSG), which featured the “Kill Tony” star calling Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage,” Mehdi found himself face-to-face with conservative provocateur Ryan Girdusky on Monday night.
Sharing a panel on CNN’s ‘NewsNight,’ Mehdi and Girdusky were presented the opportunity to talk about the MSG rally, which has been widely condemned over its dark tone and incendiary rhetoric towards women, minorities, and immigrants. Noting the intense backlash to the rally, Mehdi began to point out that conservatives shouldn’t act like Nazis if they didn’t want to be called that.
Gidursky reacted by asserting that Mehdi had been “called an antisemite more than anyone at this table,” prompting the Zeteo founder to say he’d grown used to that because he’s “a supporter of the Palestinians.” At that point, things went completely off the rails in the worst possible way.
“Well, I hope your beeper doesn’t go off,” Girdusky sneered, making an obvious reference to the Israeli operation that killed dozens, including children, when hundreds of pagers belonging to Hezbollah exploded. “Did you just say I should die?” Mehdi reacted. “Did you just say I should be killed live on CNN?!”
Needless to say, Girdusky’s remarks caused others at the table to denounce him – especially when he offered up an insincere apology, claiming he thought Mehdi was expressing his support for Hamas. “Ryan, that is completely out of pocket,” host Abby Phillip exclaimed while Girdusky whined that he “apologized” already.
During the commercial break, Girdusky was removed from the panel, and Mehdi left on his own accord. “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 off set in the middle of a live show, as I did on Monday night,” Mehdi said in a video response on Wednesday, adding that Girdusky’s line “wasn’t a joke, and that he almost certainly came pre-prepared with, thinking he could get away with it on live national television. That’s how bold these MAGA Republicans have become with their racism…with the help of some in our media who have just happily platformed it.”
Phillip, on the night, later told viewers that “there is a line that was crossed there, and it’s not acceptable to me.” The network also quickly released a statement saying that Girdusky would no longer be booked on CNN programming.
“There is zero room for racism or bigotry at CNN or on our air,” the network stated Monday night. “Ryan Girdusky will not be welcomed back at our network.”
Girdusky, who had become a semi-regular fixture on Phillip’s panels in recent weeks, took to social media to complain that he was kicked to the curb by CNN for merely joking. “Apparently you can’t go on CNN if you make a joke. I’m glad America gets to see what CNN stands for,” he tweeted.
He also wrote a lengthy screed on his Substack on Tuesday, portraying his CNN ban as the end result of cancel culture and liberal bias pushed by the mainstream media. His blog also included this howler of a line: “Within minutes of leaving the set, everyone I knew, including plenty of liberals, reached out to see if I was okay.” Remember, this is the man who implied his fellow panelist was a terrorist who deserved to be blown up.
Additionally, Girdusky misrepresented how the exchange between him and Mehdi went, chalking his “beeper” comment as a “quick joke,” all while insisting he had no idea who Mehdi was until this week. (This is obviously not true since he’s regularly tweeted at or about Mehdi over the years.)
“I’m not a victim: I said what I said. I own it,” Girdusky wrote at the end of his post portraying himself as a victim.
MAGA Media Unsurprisingly Downplays Racist ‘Jokes’
Getting beyond Girdusky’s self-pitying for a minute, the thing that really stands out here is his continued insistence that he is merely guilty of telling an innocent little joke, and the outrage over his remarks is misplaced. And many of Girdusky’s far-right compatriots have echoed that line, claiming it represents a double standard.
This is similar to how the right has reacted to Hinchcliffe’s remarks amid the firestorm of backlash they’ve caused and the possibility it could turn out more Puerto Rican voters against Trump. While Republicans have sought to distance themselves from the comic, with Trump himself asserting he doesn’t know who he is, conservatives have also defended the comments and even praised them as educational.
“Now people know about Puerto Rico having a huge trash problem,” Fox News’ resident “comedian” Greg Gutfeld declared. Hinchliffe himself has also defended his remarks, claiming that his “joke was taken out of context” by Democrats.
While it is utterly predictable that MAGA media would go out of their way to downplay this racist and violent rhetoric as just attempts at humor, especially with the GOP looking to peel off Latino and Arab-American voters, it does beg another question: why is CNN even platforming someone like Girdusky in the first place?
Not the First Time
CNN clearly hasn’t learned its lesson from previous incidents of inviting MAGA flamethrowers on air, only to have to cut ties with them over their unhinged rhetoric.
In 2017, the network severed ties with Jeffrey Lord after he tweeted “Sieg Heil!” at a liberal activist. The following year, the network fired Ed Martin, who was essentially brought on to be Lord’s replacement as CNN’s resident Trump backer. And in 2021, Rick Santorum was let go over incendiary remarks he made about Native Americans.
On the surface, Girdusky was likely invited by CNN because he is friends with GOP vice presidential candidate JD Vance and worked on a super PAC to get Vance elected to the Senate in 2022. Girdusky even said this was the key factor in his Substack piece.
He also founded the 1776 Project PAC, which has devoted itself to pushing school boards to the right. Therefore, the network likely saw him as someone who could present a pro-Trump perspective and seemed plugged into the campaign – especially with CNN primetime leaning more toward partisan panel discussions as the election approaches.
Meanwhile, as independent journalist Amanda Moore reported on Tuesday, Girdusky isn’t just a run-of-the-mill Republican. Besides his 1776 Project having ties to white nationalists, Girdusky himself once wrote for Alternative Right, a now-defunct website run by notorious white supremacist Richard Spencer, per Moore. At the time of Girdusky’s contributions, Alternative Right also listed Peter Brimelow as a contributing editor, who would later found the white nationalist group VDARE.
Furthermore, as The Washington Post noted, Girdusky has also contributed to The American Conservative, which was founded by ‘paleoconservative’ Pat Buchanan. In a 2020 piece for the magazine, Girdusky criticized Trump acolyte Stephen Miller – who was once associated with Spencer and has long promoted white nationalist talking points – for not doing more to implement Trump’s Muslim ban.
But hey, don’t you dare suggest they sound like Nazis.
