Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive U.S. reporting and analysis delivered to your inbox

Get our free Inside Washington email

CNN has said it will no longer feature appearances by writer Ryan Girdusky after he made a comment during a chaotic and bad-tempered panel discussion in which he appeared to hope a Muslim journalist would be blown up in a bombing.

“There is no room for racism or bigotry on CNN or in our broadcasts,” the channel said in a statement. “We strive to promote thoughtful conversations and debates, including between people who strongly disagree, to explore important issues and promote mutual understanding.

“But we will not allow guests to be humiliated or the line of civility to be crossed. Ryan Girdusky will no longer be welcome in our network.”

The independent has contacted Girdusky for comment.

The incident began during a panel on Monday, when Girdusky and fellow panelist Mehdi Hasan discussed Donald Trump’s recent rally at Madison Square Garden and discussed allegations that the Trump campaign is spreading Nazi-style ideas.

Girdusky began to make a comment about labels, and how Hasan, an outspoken supporter of Palestinian rights, is often labeled an anti-Semite by his opponents.

Hasan, editor-in-chief of the news site Zeteo, said he is used to the attack given his vocal support for the Palestinians.

“Yeah, well, I hope your pager doesn’t go off,” Girdusky said then.

The comment appears in context to be a reference to last month’s large-scale explosion of pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to suspected Hezbollah members, which killed 37 people and injured thousands, including many civilians. Lebanese officials have blamed the attack on Israel, which denies responsibility for the explosions.

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

The independent has contacted Zeteo for comment. On X, Hasan reposted CNN’s condemnation of the comments.

During a heated exchange that followed, Hasan suggested that Girdusky was inciting violence against him, and CNN allowed a panelist to suggest that “the Muslim man should be blown up.”

On air, Girdusky claimed his comments came after he believed Hasan said he supported Hamas.

“You didn’t think I said Hamas,” Hasan said. “I said I support Palestinian rights,” adding, “At least have the courage to support your racist comment.”

After the show returned from the commercial break without Girdusky or Hasan, host Abby Phillip apologized to Hasan and the viewers, calling the comments “completely unacceptable.”

“If we get this discussion going, you’ll see that Ryan isn’t at the table,” she said. “A line has been crossed there and it is not acceptable to me, and it is not acceptable to us on this network either.”

“We can have conversations about what’s happening in this country without resorting to the lowest of the low types of discourse,” she said.

Other convictions followed.

“CNN has played a central role in normalizing this kind of overt anti-Arab, anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian hatred, and it is unfortunately not at all surprising to see such disgusting statements now aired so casually on its network” , said Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib. who is Muslim and Palestinian-American, wrote on X.