MSNBC Host Loses Show After Old Controversial Tapes Resurface

MSNBC host Mehdi Hassan’s Sunday night program has been canceled by the network.

Hasan will lose his weekend show as well as his show on the Peacock streaming service but will stay at the network as an on-camera analyst and fill-in host.

Ayman Mohyeldin will take over Hasan’s one-hour Sunday program as he expands his weekend footprint.

Mehdi Hassan’s show canceled by MSNBC as part of weekend shakeup https://t.co/bNc05bOz72 pic.twitter.com/sRZexcyWvU

— The Hill (@thehill) November 30, 2023

From Fox News:

Known as one of the more pugnacious liberal media figures in cable news, Hasan joined MSNBC in 2020 after stints at Al Jazeera and the hard-left site The Intercept.

Hasan’s cancelation comes on the heels of inflammatory remarks he made in 2009, long before becoming an MSNBC personality, circulating online last weekend when they were unearthed by New York Post reporter Jon Levine, although it doesn’t appear the two are related.

MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan has compared non-Muslims to "animals" and homosexuals to "pedophiles" and "sexual deviants"

Hard to imagine MSNBC allowing someone on television who said similar things about a different religion — let alone giving them a show! pic.twitter.com/CGBo4suQdh

— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) November 27, 2023

Hasan compared non-Muslims to “animals” and linked homosexuals to “pedophiles” and “sexual deviants.” In 2019, Hasan apologized for those comments, calling them “dumb offensive ranty stuff” and admitted that he said “extreme-sounding things” as a young man.

Dear @SamHarrisOrg, it's been a week since you tried to smear me for ancient remarks that I've disowned&apologized for. When I pointed out more than a dozen of your own bigoted remarks, https://t.co/IGbJaPzkuD
you went very quiet. So, I have some questions for you:
*THREAD*
1/

— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) April 7, 2019

Hasan has been one of the strongest critics of Israel in the mainstream media during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, and he is known for his strident social media commentary and clashes with conservatives and other political foes.

.@PeterBeinart on the censorship of Pro-Palestinian rhetoric: “The idea that if you’re going to…say you can’t say ‘Palestine should be free from the river [to] the sea’ then you also shouldn’t be able to say that you can have one Israel from the river to the sea.” pic.twitter.com/i0xzl4r6hq

— The Mehdi Hasan Show (@MehdiHasanShow) November 20, 2023

When Levine resurfaced the comments, he added that it’s “hard to imagine MSNBC allowing someone on television who said similar things about a different religion.”

MSNBC declined comment when specifically asked if the resurfaced comments contributed to this decision.

In an internal memo, MSNBC president Rashida Jones focused on the positive aspects of the shakeup.

“As we emerge from a multitude of historic events these past months, we have an opportunity to build on our accomplishments and keep the momentum going into 2024 and beyond,” Jones wrote in a memo obtained by Fox News Digital.

“Hasan will remain at the network, bringing his much-needed insight and expertise to MSNBC viewers as a Political Analyst and fill-in host,” Jones added.

Hasan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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MSNBC is hardly moving away from progressive commentary with the move. In another programming decision this week, it’s launching a weekend morning ensemble show “The Weekend,” which will be hosted by former Biden aide Symone Sanders-Townsend, Alicia Menendez, the daughter of embattled Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, and Michael Steele, the former Republican chairman who now openly detests the party.