AS A MATTER of preference, Mehdi Hasan likes a smart opponent. "It's no fun interviewing village idiots," he says, for instance, of Marjorie Taylor Greene. He recounts some of his favorite interviews during his three years as the host of The Mehdi Hasan Show on MSNBC and Peacock with the pride of a grizzled prizefighter: the short-lived Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, Texas congressman Dan Crenshaw, Elon Musk's newfound mouthpiece Matt Taibbi. Many of them began as Twitter arguments. They would trade barbs and hyperlinks and quote-tweets, and invariably Hasan would bait them into saying something like "Why don't you invite me on your show, then?"--the cable news version of "Catch me outside." There was a schoolyard braggadocio about it, a crotch grab with a bachelor's in political science. (Yes, they were usually men.) Someone like Taibbi might have fanboys gathered around jeering, "Nahhh, dude, he's scared of you." But of course this was exactly what Hasan wanted all alonga worthy adversary and an audience-so by the time his subject was seated with the earpiece plugged in, the public pantsing could commence.
"Other people have, you know, horse riding or basketball," he says. "I argue in interviews. This is what gets me going. Imagine an action movie with a debate with Jason Statham. That's like heaven for me." The one he's telling me about now, with Mark Regev, a senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, defined the end of his MSNBC tenure. "The Israeli government is very good at putting out a spokesperson. Regev is one of the smoothest operators. Probably one of their best media performers. And that was, for me," Hasan says, clapping and rubbing his hands together, "a challenge."
Denne historien er fra April 22 – May 05, 2024-utgaven av New York magazine.
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Denne historien er fra April 22 – May 05, 2024-utgaven av New York magazine.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Lonely Islands The epic melancholy of Caspar David Friedrich.
YOU KNOW THE WORK of Caspar David Friedrich even if you don't think you do.
As Seen at Sundance
The talk of the ski town this year was chilly.
RESTAURANT REVIEW - It Only Looks Humble
Zimmi's is like an Old Country inn where the details are just right.
THE LAST TABOO
14 ADULTS ON COMING TO TERMS WITH, LYING ABOUT, DEPENDING ON. AND SPENDING THEIR PARENTS' MONEY.
Global Tongue A class in Iran probes English's transformative and oppressive powers.
SOMETIMES I THINK you can only speak one language,\" says a character in Sanaz Toossi's English.
Bold Lines on the Block In Bed-Stuy, a deconstructivist tries his hand at affordable housing.
WALK DOWN AN ordinary, blah-colored stretch of Marcus Garvey Boulevard in Bedford-Stuyvesant, past the dispiriting bulk of Woodhull Hospital and the brown-brick boxes of the Sumner Houses, and you'll come upon an incongruous apparition, a giant sugar cube that's been carved, beveled, and knocked askew.
The Reluctant Romantic
An afternoon of banter and bottled water with Leo Woodall, Hollywood's favorite new heartthrob.
53 MINUTES WITH ...Spencer Pratt
The former reality-TV star lost his home in the fires and ascended to a new level of fame.
Brushing Up an East Williamsburg Railroad
Artist Scott Csoke took a can of pink paint to an otherwise ho-hum rental.
BIG FOOD GETS JACKED
HOW PROTEIN MANIA TOOK OVER THE AMERICAN GROCERY STORE.
