Conservative commentator banned from CNN for joke blasts 'religious' fervor of Left
Ryan James Girdusky founded 1776 Project PAC in 2021
The conservative commentator and political consultant who was banned from CNN last week over a joke said he believes the political Left has been overtaken by a seemingly religious fervor.
Ryan James Girdusky, 37, drew attention last week when he appeared on CNN anchor Abby Phillip's show and said he hopes pro-Palestinian journalist Mehdi Hasan's "beeper doesn't go off" after Hasan accused Trump supporters of behaving like Nazis.
Girdusky's quip, which was an apparent reference to the pagers of Hamas terrorists exploding in September, prompted immediate backlash from the other panelists and an accusation from Hasan that Girdusky wanted him to die, which Girdusky denied.
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Footage of the exchange received tens of millions of views on X, though neither Girdusky nor Hasan appeared during the next segment, and CNN later released a statement saying that Girdusky would not be allowed back.
Girdusky to Hasan: I hope your beeper doesn’t go off pic.twitter.com/YmHhYnkDZ3
— Acyn (@Acyn) October 29, 2024
In the wake of his comment and subsequent ban from the network, Girdusky made several prominent media appearances, including with Glenn Beck and Megyn Kelly. Speaking with The Christian Post in a recent interview, he pushed back against accusations that have been hurled against him, such as that from journalist Matthew Sheffield, who accused him of being a "radical Christian supremacist."
Girdusky, who worked for the Protect Ohio Values PAC that helped elect Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, said Sheffield's accusation was one he had neither heard nor cared about, and said he "doesn't even know" what a Christian nationalist is.
"If you look on social media, you'll see everything from that I am a Jewish activist to a Christian supremacist," he said. "I'm just a regular Catholic conservative who is not far-right. I'm just me. I feel like I'm pretty middle of the road as far as politics go."
"People try to label people with slogans so they don't ever have to hear what you say, and I just reject that entire thing, and that's all," he added.
In 2021, Girdusky founded the 1776 Project PAC, which aims to assert political change at the local level by "electing school board members nationwide who want to reform our public education system by promoting patriotism and pride in American history," according to its website. They claim to have helped elect more than 200 school board candidates in more than a dozen states.
The PAC opposes encroaching critical race theory, transgenderism, and other radical ideologies that Girdusky said have seeped into even the smallest school districts.
Though he noted his PAC is not religious, Girdusky acknowledged a spiritual aspect to his fight against leftist indoctrination in the public school system. He noted the political Left appears to be driven by an almost religious fervor, especially regarding the school system.
"I think that it's a spiritual issue and a religious issue in the sense that the indoctrination of the Left and how fervently they believe it is almost like a religious position," he said. "The goal of the public school system should not be to make everyone Christian, or make everyone Catholic, or make everyone anything."
He said the role of schools to challenge students has largely given way to enforcing "an ideological standard that is horrific and does not help them."
"If we didn't have a single culture war issue in schools — school prayer, Pledge of Allegiance, CRT, trans issues, you name it — if we had none of those things, we still have failing schools," he said. "The essential thing they're supposed to be doing is broken, and so often the people who advocate for issues in schools are doing so on behalf of adults who work there, not children who learn there."
Despite his at-times acerbic rhetoric, Girdusky said his Catholic faith has taught him humility.
"I think that what plays at the center of my Christian and Catholic faith is, like every other person, I can think really negative things about people. I can have biases. I can fall into stereotypes and angry feelings, and I have so many personal shortcomings," he said.
"And it is only because I understand people have a soul — and sometimes they are broken, but they are made in the likeness of Christ — that I work really hard at overcoming every single thing that is a sin; all those things are a sin. And that is really where the center of my faith comes into it."
Girdusky said he has hated the attention he has gotten since last week's incident on CNN, but that he feels called to the work he's doing, even if it brings him unwanted attention. He silenced his mentions on X after he went viral and said he has been inundated on Instagram with thousands of unsolicited friend requests, though he is reluctant to delete the app because he uses it to find cooking recipes.
"I have a million very well-intentioned good people in my life who love me and say, 'Why don't you just stop? Why do you have to say anything? Why do you have to do this? You can have a nice, quiet life. Why do you have to just put yourself out there?'"
Girdusky was reluctant to characterize his work as a divine calling, but noted that his faith drives him as an individual.
"I don't know, but I find myself seeing idiots saying lies all the time, and I want to scream at the top of my lungs," he said. "I have a fundamental allergy to people who talk to adults like they are children and who promote narratives over facts. It drives me literally out of my mind."
"Where I got that from, I don't know. It's not genetic, so it has to be from somewhere else. So if that's a divine thing, fine. I would never call myself a Christian nationalist. I'm certainly not the best Catholic in the entire world. I'm never going to be canonized as a saint. That's OK."
"But I hope that with what I do and how I do it, I make some people's lives a little better," he added.
Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post. Send news tips to jon.brown@christianpost.com
