Dan Abrams Digs Up Old Anti-Israeli Clip of MSNBC Hosts and Asks ‘How is MSNBC Surprised?’

NewsNation host and Mediaite founder Dan Abrams slammed MSNBC over how the network handled a controversy over several hosts’ coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.

In a Monday night segment, the Mediaite founder focused on MSNBC denying a report that it benched three Muslim anchors over their coverage of the conflict: Ayman Mohyeldin, Ali Velshi, and Mehdi Hasan.

Abrams noted he previously criticized those hosts for pushing “whataboutisms and false equivalencies” regarding Hamas’ atrocities against Israel, though he did praise Mohyeldin: “He’s clearly a smart guy who’s often doing an interesting left-wing show on weekends.”

“The fact is, none of the three hosted their regularly scheduled shows this past weekend,” Abrams said. “Two of them suddenly co-anchored with colleagues, while a third was ‘on vacation.'”

Abrams cited reporting from Semafor that Mohyeldin, Velshi, and Hasan were “taken out of the anchor chair” over their coverage.  Abrams noted that the report suggested the three were benched because of their Muslim faith: “Over the past decade, NBC and MSNBC have struggled to cover the flare-ups of violence in the Middle East without internal controversy, which is largely centered around three of the network’s Muslim anchors who are among the highest profile Muslim voices in American journalism.”

“Of course, this has nothing to do with their religion,” Abrams said. “This is about what they’ve said and done here. And by the way, in the past as well. And when you look at that, it hardly makes them credible on this topic.”

Abrams aired examples of Mohyeldin’s past commentary about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, noting that these remarks “have not aged well,” in particular regarding a report on a knife-wielding attacker that was then corrected on-air by an MSNBC anchor.

Abrams took a similar dive into Hasan’s past comments, showing the MSNBC host’s history of “ugly commentary” about non-Muslims in a 2009 speech at a London mosque.

“We know that keeping the moral high ground is key,” Hasan was shown saying. “Once we lose the moral high ground, we are not different from the rest of the non-Muslims, from the rest of those human beings who live their lives as animals, bending any rule to fulfill any desire.”

Abrams then aired another clip in which Hasan compared nonbelievers to cattle,”The disbelievers, the atheists who remain deaf and stubborn to the teachings of Islam, the rational message of the Quran, they are described in the Quran as, quote, “a people of no intelligence”, Allah describes them as; not of no morality, not as people of no belief, people of no intelligence.”

“Can you imagine if there was like a full-time Fox News host who said nonbelievers of Christianity were animals?” Abrams asked before noting, “Now, once he became higher profile, he apologized numerous times and chalked up his comments to use ignorance. It’s not like he was 12, though, when he made the remarks.”

“This isn’t personal. I think Mehdi is a very good interviewer and a powerful liberal activist,” Abrams said. “But are we supposed to just ignore the things he said about non-believers of Islam?… Can you imagine if there was a full-time Fox News host who said non-believers of Christianity were animals?”

Abrams said he doesn’t believe Hasan should lose his job, “but how is MSNBC surprised by what he’s saying about this conflict?”

“The bigger problem, from my perspective, is that MSNBC can’t and won’t admit that they’ve sidelined these guys because their left-wing audience would go berserk,” Abrams concluded. “The others in the left-wing media would again make it about their religion rather than their words.”

Velshi covered the Israel-Hamas war from Israel and appeared on the network roughly 40 times on location. Mohyeldin also appeared on the network in the past week over a dozen times but as a pundit sharing regional expertise. Hasan has been active on Twitter but has not commented on his vacation thus far.

Watch above via NewsNation.

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