[ad_1]
C-SPAN bleeped the audio of a caller who phoned in to use a racial slur and call for the death of former President Barack Obama on Sunday.
During the network’s morning program Washington Journal, host Paul Orgel took a call from a person he identified as Christopher of White Haven, Pennsylvania on the Republican phone line. Callers are meant to phone in with questions for guests based on the discussion, but Christopher instead falsely claimed that Obama was an “illegal alien.”
As Orgel responded, “How do you know this?” Christopher proceeded to talk over him. The audio then cut out for a few seconds as the guests looked visibly stunned.
The audio returned as Orgel told viewers, “We’re going to try to get somebody who has something constructive to add to the conversation hopefully.” He then moved onto the next caller.
Following the program, Paul Waldman, a guest on the program, tweeted that a caller shouted for Obama’s death and called the former president the N-word. Waldman, a Washington Post opinion writer and American Prospect senior writer, was discussing President Donald Trump’s brazen attitude despite his lack of political experience when Orgel took the call.
When it became clear that Christopher was threatening the president and using a racial slur on the air, Orgel “practically lunged for the button to cut him off,” Waldman said.
“To be honest, that’s the most animated reaction I’ve ever seen from a C-SPAN host,” he added.
The incident comes weeks after a caller phoned in and threatened “to shoot” CNN hosts Don Lemon and Brian Stelter. C-SPAN reported the caller’s remarks to the FBI. C-SPAN did not immediately return HuffPost’s request for comment.
[ad_2]
Source link