CNN has banned conservative commentator and 1776 Project PAC founder Ryan Girdusky over a joke that the network has called “racist.” But Ryan joins Glenn to expose CNN’s hypocrisy. Girdusky’s quip to MSNBC host, Palestine supporter, and fellow panelist Mehdi Hasan that “I hope your beeper doesn’t go off” was enough to get him removed. But Hasan was allowed to call Girdusky a Nazi?! Girdusky also notes that the other CNN panelists had no issue with constantly telling jokes about white people or comparing Trump to Joseph Goebbels. But there was one decision that CNN made that convinced Girdusky to just speak his mind, even if it meant getting fired …
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: Ryan Girdusky. You might have seen him. He was the guy. What did he do two weeks ago. We were on, going, yeah. Well, I think he's right about that?
STU: The problem -- he's a major problem. Because he keeps winning arguments at CNN.
And he's not supposed to do that.
He's supposed to be the idiot foil for the rest of the panel.
GLENN: Yeah. So now he's been banned on CNN. Because they're just after the truth.
That's all they want.
Ryan joins us in just a second or two.
Hang on just a second.
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(music)
Ryan Girdusky is on with us.
He's the founder of the 1776 Project PAC and a political consultant. Welcome, Ryan.
How are you?
RYAN: Good. Thanks for having me.
It's been one crazy 12 hours.
GLENN: I'll bet it was. For people who didn't hear it, let me play what happened on CNN.
VOICE: If you don't want to be called Nazis --
VOICE: You're called. Stop calling --
VOICE: Table.
VOICE: People are sitting there.
VOICE: By me -- I didn't call you an anti-Semite.
VOICE: I'm a Palestinian, I'm used to it.
VOICE: Yeah, well, I hope your beeper doesn't go off.
VOICE: You just said he should be killed.
VOICE: On live TV.
VOICE: Guys, let me just stop.
GLENN: So there's this fake outrage, of you said I wanted to be killed.
And Ryan immediately apologized. Okay. Fine. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say that. I'm sorry. It was wrong. But the other guy doesn't apologize to you for calling you and people like you, a Nazi.
STU: Yeah.
GLENN: In my book, that's worse than a Hamas member. I mean, they're in the same category. But what's worse?
RYAN: Well, the funny thing, it sounds much funnier in re-listening it than it was live. Because it was going crazy. Well, also the crazy thing was, he also said -- Trump sounded like Goebbels.
Now, I never met him before. I had heard a lot about him. But he was making accusations, that I was calling him an anti-Semite. That I was doing all these things to him. I had never spoke to him before. I didn't even know who he was.
And going on to that show, I decided like so -- so what happens if you don't do cable news, the producers text you all the topics, a few hours in advance. And they could range from people things you know anything about. Things you don't know anything about.
So I was -- so one of the topics they just changed it.
It was two segments on the Trump rally. Because obviously it's the most important thing in the world. They actually scrubbed the thing like war.
So then, we were going on, to do segment at the end, with Brian Stelter about trust and accuracy in the media.
And I just about lost it. And I was like, here's what I'm going to do. Here's what I said to myself, going to the show.
I was going to tell him, you're fake news.
You owe everyone on CNN an apologize for Russia. For Russia gate. For COVID.
For the Stormy Daniels. This is our last episode. Because they will never have me back. After I do what I do.
This was just a throwaway line. Because what happened, I got on set.
The woman sitting next to me. She was outraged. I was speaking to her.
She was making comments.
Like white man. Whole run into the show.
And looked just like -- it freaking irked me. I would never say opposite racial things like that.
But if I did, I wouldn't even make it to the show open.
But it was just like the double standard.
Then I said on the show, that people in the media -- everybody that attended the Trump rally was a Nazi. Abbey said that wasn't true. Totally true.
Abbey has falsely corrected me on things that I said was true, and she said, it was the Ferguson effect.
Which was very clearly -- even though, she was --
GLENN: That's what it was.
RYAN: So, anyway, I did the thing.
It was a throwaway line. Go to commercial. Then throws his mic on the table. Storms out of the place. I'm not going to be on with him. Abbey is like, can you please step aside?
Because Allison was like, he needs to leave. And I was like, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to embarrass. I hope you don't get in trouble from corporate. I told the producer, I hope you don't get in trouble. Because it wasn't very lovely to me. And I'm a professional.
And that was that. I was like, okay. Cool.
And you would have thought, you know, I was responsible of the Hindenburg disaster, the way people are responding to it.
I'm like, calm the freaking hell down. I said to somebody, who by the way, always stands up for terrorists.
You know, or sits there -- and kowtows to terrorists, that -- and terrorist-funded countries, that they are -- that, you know, that it's a joke. Whatever.
Like, grow a pair. Like, I don't know. I'm a man. If you sit there and make a joke at my expense and you apologize, I'm over it in 30 seconds.
I'm not going to go storm off and act like, you know what.
GLENN: Right. So go ahead.
STU: Ryan, people probably don't know a lot about this guy. Mehdi Hasan. You know, is he -- I'm sure you've looked into him, a little bit more since all of this has gone down.
He does seem to be well-known for conveniently taking the side of terrorists over and over and over again. What do we know about what his beliefs are?
RYAN: I don't know him. I genuinely don't watch cable news.
I don't watch MSNBC.
I watched him a lot. I don't watch MSNBC. Unless it's an election where they're losing or all crying on set.
(laughter)
RYAN: So I don't know what he's all about. I genuinely don't -- I Googled him a couple of -- maybe a couple of years ago. He said that nonbelievers are all cattle and animals.
And that gays are pedophiles.
And he apologized. And stuff.
But that's basically all you need to know. Is like where they're coming from.
And I think that he was doing a show with the nation of -- I think it was Qatar.
I don't know.
I don't want to say anything.
He was doing a show with a foreign country, at one point.
He was booted off MSNBC.
Whatever. I don't know.
But literally like, I don't know.
I don't want to sit there and say more.
I can't --
STU: Yeah. Yeah.
It seems like, when you're talking about --
RYAN: It's not great. It's not great.
STU: Right. When you're talking about rhetorical flourish of sorts. You know, you can put your comment and him calling you a Nazi in roughly the same category.
RYAN: Right.
STU: It's an overstatement, sure. You're making a point.
It's a debate. But when someone comes after you, and calls you, the worst -- member of the worst group of people that anyone can ever imagine.
Like it's sort of normal to come back and be a little prickly about the situation.
RYAN: Well, also, the thing is they will never know what it is to be a conservative in the media. They will never. The only Democrat in probably the history of the world, know what it's like to be a Republican is Joe Biden. In the one month that they all sat there and said, you have to get out, and the whole media was against him.
They do not know what it's like to show up at your show, where the hosts are biased. And the guests are biased.
And it's three on one screaming at you constantly. And you're like, hey, I read the statistics somewhere, and it doesn't really matter.
Because what's important is the narrative. That's all they care about. It's the narrative. And the narrative and the narrative.
If you sit there and you shoot against the narrative for so long, it is -- you know, they have to get rid of you.
I don't care. It's not like I was going on CNN anyway.
I do school board elections with the 1776 Project.
That's what I do. This is just like something I did for -- well, three and a quarter episode, if you think about it.
GLENN: You were only on three and a quarter episode?
RYAN: Of Abby's show, and then the other show is on twice.
RYAN: I did maybe five and a quarter shows in like three weeks. All of them went viral.
STU: That's amazing. Yeah. I was going to say, I think every single one of them went viral. I thought you were on all the time, because every single time, I turn on Twitter, you're going viral for this.
RYAN: No. I was on -- I was on the whole network, less than a full six episodes.
And, you know, whatever.
I didn't care. I want to give credit to some person, to the booking person at CNN, who originally talked to me.
They said, they are looking for a Republican. You are a Republican, who will apologize for being a Republican.
It ain't me.
That's not what we're looking for.
You can come on.
I said, okay. Great. I told them flat-out who I was, that's I was very open and honest.
I'm not going to apologize for being a Republican. I'm not going to attack Donald Trump. Not on CNN. My grandmother would kill me.
That is not going to be me. And so like, whatever. That's all fine. And they let me on. So I'm lucky to have the opportunity.
Probably could have handled it differently. But at the end of the day, I'm not a Nazi. And the fact that one guest gets to call another a Nazi. And the other can't flip it in a joke. That was funny, by the way.
STU: Objectively a funny line. It is a little roast comedian. Like we just had this experience with the MSG situation. It's in that category, which they might not like, but objectively a funny line.
GLENN: So can I ask you, when producers called, they said you were a little reluctant to come on the air.
Why?
RYAN: When they called about, what?
GLENN: Coming on the air here.
RYAN: Well, like, listen, I didn't want to -- not that I don't want to amplify the story. I don't think it's a story. In 24 hours, someone will find something else to be outraged with.
I don't -- I went to a party literally like a few days ago. A conservative party, and every four seconds, some stranger I didn't know yelled at me, the Ferguson effect!
And I was like, great. And I'm like, okay, great. Now I will be called beeper for the rest of my life. So I didn't want to talk about this forever.
So I said, okay. I will do a few shows today. And then none after this.
And that will be that. And I was like, listen, I have a moment where I can talk about my PAC. My school board election. And mention it while I'm doing it. And that will be that.
I just don't think anyone really care about it, come in a couple of weeks.
And wait. One other thing, by the way, that other segment that I was on. This is the most insane story in the world.
I was on the segment with the Ferguson effect. The two women next to me. Ashley Allison. I don't remember the other girl's name. We only spoke about five minutes together.
We did a segment. For 25 minutes. Almost a half an hour. The one looked at, the one I don't remember. Her -- she looked at Ashley Allison, right on set, points at me, and says, what's his name?
And she goes, I have no idea. We've been on this show 30 minutes before our names were publicly announced. And didn't sit there and say, oh, hi, nice to meet you. Yada, yada, yada.
Lot of just mean girl nonsense like that. So, anyway, I just wanted to --
GLENN: So the 1776 Project.
Is that the 1776 project that was banned or stopped immediately after Biden got into office?
RYAN: No, no, no. It's a PAC to flip school board elections. We've done almost a thousand school board elections in three years.
We put money directly into school board races. To support conservatives for a myriad of issues. Everything from testing standards to, you know, enforcement of school rules.
To CRT, to the trans issue. There's one school board in Texas. That we literally booked every single seat in.
So we have done this.
We have races coming up in Maryland and Arizona next week.
We have hundreds of thousands of dollars into those races. And we're trying to sit there and to get conservatives elected across the country, to protect kid's public education.
GLENN: How do you feel about the election?
RYAN: You know, I'm nervous. I think Trump is doing well. I wrote something for my Substack, two days ago.
The craziest thing in the world. And this will drive you nuts.
In a 2020, the census admitted that they got the data wrong.
And they gave extra seats, Congressional seats to Rhode Island, Colorado, and Minnesota. Over Texas. Was supposed to get one extra. And Florida was supposed to get two.
If Trump wins the Sunbelt and loses the three Rust Belt states, he will lose the election 270-268. Had they not misallocated those seats, he would have won 270 and 267. So things like that, at this point, playing in my head, driving me crazy.
He will win one Rust Belt state. He just has to win Michigan, Wisconsin or Pensacola. Pennsylvania -- Pensacola.
Now, Pennsylvania. I'm thinking of Florida now.
I think things look good. Republicans are voting like their life depends on it.
Just brace into a little bit more, and we just need to get some independents along the way. And he should win one of those states.
GLENN: Let me ask you: What's your take on the support behind Kamala?
RYAN: I think a lot of it is people who hate Trump. I think a part of it is also the AstroTurf, female empowerment nonsense, that she's just so great.
And I mean, look, she went from being Selena Meyers on beat, to being a girl boss in 24 hours in the media.
Everybody remembers. And this is where they hid her for so long. This is why she's keeping her hidden. She has a billion dollars. It's a lot of money. She has all these unions. A lot of effort. What she doesn't have is a lot of support, but she's harping on this fascism and Naziism thing. Because she's got one group. One group that can put her in the White House. And that is suburban moms and dads. Who are very scared of it. And they don't have to worry about tax cuts. Because they make a lot of money. They don't live in a high crime neighborhood.
Their kids go to good schools. They are insulated in a very comfortable bubble.
A lot of them live in places that look like the 1950s.
It means nothing to them.
But Hispanics. Blacks. Muslims. Jews.
People who have a lot of stake on the line, they're living -- deal with 2020. And act towards.
They're increasingly voting for Trump.
That's why she's harping so heavily. That if you don't do this.
If you don't vote for me. You're a bad person. You're a bad white person.
You're a bad mom. You're a bad suburban person.
You're a bad person. You have to vote for me.
That is her closing methods. I don't know how effective it will. These people all vote. They all vote.
The noncollege educated. White working class. Blue-collar guy out in Pennsylvania
There were 2.66 million of them in 2016, who were not even registered to vote.
A lot have registered since then.
Twenty percent of all early votes Republican, are first-time voters. It's got to stay that way, and it's got to increase.
Yeah, that was the data that was released yesterday.
GLENN: Wow.
Ryan, thank you so much. Appreciate it. Hope we talk again.
1776 Project PAC founder, political consultant, and a guy who should wear this as a badge of honor. Now banned from CNN, for telling the truth and telling a joke.
