Guy Banned From CNN For Racism Took Credit For Replacing 33% of Williamson County’s School Board

A CNN conversation went off the rails this week when right-wing commentator Ryan Girdusky made a wildly racist comment to Mehdi Hasan, saying “I hope your beeper doesn’t go off” when Hasan said he supports the Palestinian people.

Watch it happen:

Y’all — @RyanGirdusky, founder of the 1776 PAC that claims credit for the new extreme WILLIAMSON COUNTY @WCSedu school board members, just said something obscenely racist and offensive to @mehdirhasan live on CNN, then tried to apologize.

Watch👇🏽 (H/T @Acyn) pic.twitter.com/nAiUJSEaa4

— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) October 29, 2024

The comment was a reference to Israel killing a number of Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon by making their pagers explode, an attack that also took the lives of some innocent people, including children, causing even NPR to wonder if it was a violation of international law.

Others were impressed by it.

Girdusky’s comment was not only incorrect on the facts – the pager attack was in Lebanon, not Gaza – it was also wildly offensive and racist, as he was equating support for “Palestinians” by a Muslim man with support for Hamas, and implying he thought Israel may? should? kill Hasan for it.

Hasan took offense immediately, as did the rest of the panel. After the following commercial break, Girdusky was gone thanks to quick work by host Abby Phillip, and CNN announced he was banned from the network.

Girdusky took to Twitter and whined about it, trying to deflect blame and call it a “joke”, as is the standard Republican way in the Trump era. But the question isn’t why did they kick Girdusky off, it’s why were they platforming him in the first place.

Girdusky previous was a writer for Richard Spencer, a proud white supremacist. He allegedly worked for Milo Yiannopoulos, which would be problematic for a number of other reasons. So for him to say openly racist stuff on CNN should not have come as a surprise to anyone, CNN included.

And here’s why we’re telling about this: the incident also has ties to Tennessee.

Williamson County and Wilson County, specifically.

Girdusky runs a right-wing “1776 Project PAC” out of New York, which claimed credit for the victories of 4 school board members in Williamson (Hibma, Reeves, Bostic, Driggers) and 1 in Wilson (Hohman) this past cycle.

How tight were those school board members with Girdusky? Did they court and approve his PAC’s support? Did they know about his problematic past? And do they support what he said to Hasan?

These all seem like fair questions to ask of them. And if someone capable of such open racism is proud to have backed these candidates for School Board, what does it say about their priorities for the kids in Williamson and Wilson counties?

Here’s Mehdi Hasan’s response to the incident. It’s worth your time:

“As shocked and stunned as I was, there was no way I was going to let him say that to me, unchallenged.”

My response to the racism & incitement on Monday, to a CNN pro-Trump panelist telling me: “I hope your beeper doesn’t go off,” because I said I supported Palestinian rights. pic.twitter.com/GJCAC1vAKd

— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) October 30, 2024

It’s worth noting that the very first thing these far right school board members did was rescind the previous board’s anti-private school voucher scam resolution, which was likely not a coincidence. Backing Governor Lee’s push to privatize our public schools and steer billions of taxpayer dollars to private religious schools was almost certainly a prerequisite for Girdusky’s PAC’s support.

Girdusky’s 1776 Project PAC is openly hostile to public schools. It stands to reason deep down these school board members are as well. Sadly, this is what low voter turnout gets us.