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CNN has dropped commentator and host of the show Believer,Rezla Aslan, after a series of tweets that Azlan aimed at Trump following the London attack.
The New York Times reports:
CNN said on Friday that it had cut ties with Reza Aslan, an Iranian-American scholar who was the host of the network’s weekly show “Believer,” after Mr. Aslan assailed President Trump in a series of vulgar messages on Twitter after the terrorist attack at London Bridge last weekend.
Mr. Aslan, whose program covered global religion and began this year, apologized after his tweets on Saturday, in which he described the president as “an embarrassment to humankind” and compared him, using profanity, to a piece of excrement.
His remarks came as Mr. Trump, in messages posted on Twitter minutes after the attack, criticized London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, and argued that the episode justified the president’s proposal to restrict travel to the United States by people from several predominantly Muslim countries.
“CNN has decided to not move forward with production on the acquired series ‘Believer with Reza Aslan,’” a spokeswoman for the network said in a statement. “We wish Reza and his production team all the best.”
Mr. Aslan, in a statement on Twitter, said he was “very disappointed” by the decision.
“In these politically charged times, the tenor of our nation’s discourse has become complicated, and I recognize that CNN needs to protect its brand as an unbiased news outlet,” Mr. Aslan wrote.
Azlan is the second CNN commentator to be removed due to their reactions to Trump. Kathy Griffin, in the now infamous picture with her holding a head of Donald Trump, was fired from CNN as well.
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