Friday’s version of the PBS Information Hour contained a irritating interview with the left’s deportation hero of the day, carried out by the outlet’s most slanted reporter, White Home correspondent Laura Barron-Lopez.
After she and co-anchor Geoff Bennett talked in regards to the launch of Tufts College pupil Rumeysa Ozturk, whose pupil visa was revoked apparently as a result of she co-wrote an anti-Israel op-ed, the dialogue segued to somebody whom Bennett referred to as “one other pupil who was not too long ago launched from detention, Mohsen Mahdawi.”
PBS held up as heroic a determine who led Jew-harassing teams on campus:
BARRON-LOPEZ: Mohsen, you have been detained for greater than two weeks. Are you able to inform me about your expertise in detention in a spot the place you lived for years?
MAHDAWI: My expertise really has conflicting emotions about it, the primary one is being grateful for being in Vermont amongst my group and the shut authorized assist and going by means of the due course of right here and thru the justice system. And the opposite one is feeling the soreness of this injustice to be principally punished for training free speech.
Requested by Barron-Lopez why he attended a citizenship interview he suspected was a lure, he responded partially:
MAHDAWI: ….A part of me felt that there is perhaps individuals on this system of immigration who see my activism for what it’s, that it’s an activism in opposition to struggle and for peace….
BARRON-LOPEZ: Mohsen, the administration has stated that your presence within the U.S. would have critical hostile overseas coverage penalties. And in a memo obtained by The New York Occasions, Secretary of State Marco Rubio went additional, saying that your actions might — quote — “doubtlessly undermine the Center East peace course of.” What’s your response to their argument?
MAHDAWI: I believe it’s really a joke and laughable that they’re accusing me of these false accusations….
The reporter finally broached, in impossibly imprecise phrases, Mahdawi’s documented file of hostility towards Jews. The Washington Free Beacon emphasised Mahdawi “led a coalition of anti-Israel teams and endorsed the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist assault,” and who “has additionally stated he ‘can empathize’ with Hamas over the terrorist group’s Oct. 7 slaughter and has publicly referred to as for the destruction of Israel.”
Extra on Mahdawi’s historical past of pushing threats in opposition to Jews right here.
However all Barron-Lopez might give you was this:
BARRON-LOPEZ: The administration has additionally stated that it is a part of your protest, you promoted antisemitism and have accused you of threatening Jewish individuals. What’s your response to that?
MAHDAWI: I imagine that they’re gaslighting People and Jewish People as properly. I’m one of many individuals who stood up in opposition to antisemitism in public. And I’ve principally denounced an act of antisemitism that’s recorded on video. I’m an individual who has deep connection and deep empathy for the struggling that the Jews have gone by means of over the previous decade….
BARRON-LOPEZ: Even this week, we have now seen extra protests at Columbia, your college. Given your expertise, your detainment, and your potential deportation, would you encourage these college students to proceed protesting?
In addition to the above sentence, PBS Information had devoted a 40-second information transient (on Could 8) to the violent Columbia mob that invaded the primary campus library final week, throughout finals week
In accordance with PBS, we’ve failed this tremendous upstanding would-be citizen and proud “Vermonter”:
BARRON-LOPEZ: Mohsen, you will have been a inexperienced card holder for 10 years. And if you have been detained, it was throughout your citizenship interview, as we famous. Do you continue to need to change into an American citizen?
Mahdawi once more embraced “my Vermonter individuals” (huh?):
MAHDAWI: The query of changing into an American citizen is expounded to my deep perception in democracy, within the rules and values that it holds….It is a clear message for me that my quest for the citizenship has been answered of the individuals who I really like probably the most on this nation, my Vermonter individuals.
This ineffective interview with a Hamasnik was dropped at you partially by Cunard.
A transcript is on the market, click on “broaden” to learn:
PBS Information Hour
5/9/25
7:19:53 p.m. (ET)Laura Barron-Lopez: Mohsen, you have been detained for greater than two weeks. Are you able to inform me about your expertise in detention in a spot the place you lived for years?
Mohsen Mahdawi, Previously Detained Columbia Pupil: My expertise really has conflicting emotions about it, the primary one is being grateful for being in Vermont amongst my group and the shut authorized assist and going by means of the due course of right here and thru the justice system.
And the opposite one is feeling the soreness of this injustice to be principally punished for training free speech.
Laura Barron-Lopez: You stated that you just thought that your citizenship interview final month was a — quote — “lure.” Why did you continue to go?
Mohsen Mahdawi: I used to be torn aside between feeling excited for this interview that I waited for, for greater than a 12 months and being very cautious in regards to the risk that this interview may result in my detention.
A part of me felt that there is perhaps individuals on this system of immigration who see my activism for what it’s, that it’s an activism in opposition to struggle and for peace. However, I additionally wished to take the shot, as a result of I knew that being detained in Vermont, if I lined up all the pieces completely with my authorized workforce, I might undergo the method and combat for my rights and combat for my rights on truthful grounds.
I’d say that I’ve executed all the pieces appropriately. I’ve lived on this nation, paid taxes, by no means dedicated a criminal offense. I’ve studied on this nation, constructed the bridges, related with many communities. And I actually wished to provide it a good shot and see if I shall be — if I can change into a citizen.
Laura Barron-Lopez: Mohsen, the administration has stated that your presence within the U.S. would have critical hostile overseas coverage penalties.
And in a memo obtained by The New York Occasions, Secretary of State Marco Rubio went additional, saying that your actions might — quote — “doubtlessly undermine the Center East peace course of.”
What’s your response to their argument?
Mohsen Mahdawi: I believe it’s really a joke and laughable that they’re accusing me of these false accusations.
If there’s a peace course of that they keep in mind, let’s deliver it to the general public, share what’s your peace course of, and are available and have a look at my peace plan that I’ve developed with companions, Israelis, Palestinians, and Jews and with professors on campus.
My imaginative and prescient for peace is thru worldwide regulation and restorative justice. Their imaginative and prescient is thru struggle. How might you will have peace with struggle? If that’s their purpose, meaning they’re — really, they don’t seem to be considering of a peace course of.
Laura Barron-Lopez: The administration has additionally stated that it is a part of your protest, you promoted antisemitism and have accused you of threatening Jewish individuals. What’s your response to that?
Mohsen Mahdawi: I imagine that they’re gaslighting People and Jewish People as properly.
I’m one of many individuals who stood up in opposition to antisemitism in public. And I’ve principally denounced an act of antisemitism that’s recorded on video. I’m an individual who has deep connection and deep empathy for the struggling that the Jews have gone by means of over the previous decade. I see all human life as equal and deserve equal rights.
And this administration clearly doesn’t see it the identical means. They’re wanting on the situation from a supremacist perspective, which is definitely a hazard to our humanity. That’s the menace, not my protest and my free speech.
Laura Barron-Lopez: Even this week, we have now seen extra protests at Columbia, your college. Given your expertise, your detainment, and your potential deportation, would you encourage these college students to proceed protesting?
Mohsen Mahdawi: I encourage college students to proceed protesting peacefully, to abide by the precept of nonviolence, as a result of our phrases and our voice and bringing the difficulty to mild has far more energy than some other parts of it.
I’d additionally should share that I’m deeply disenchanted of Columbia College administration. It is undermining democracy. It is our undermining peaceable protests. And it’s punishing its college students, which is definitely technically capitulating to the Trump administration and degrading the system of the liberal college we have now and which we love Columbia College.
Laura Barron-Lopez: A few of your friends like Mahmoud Khalil are nonetheless being detained underneath comparable authorized grounds as you have been. Do you will have a message for them?
Mohsen Mahdawi: My message is, do not hand over. Keep hopeful. The justice system is working. It is a mild of hope.
My launch communicates to the entire nation right here that democracy continues to be functioning, that the system of checks and balances continues to be functioning.
Laura Barron-Lopez: Mohsen, you will have been a inexperienced card holder for 10 years. And if you have been detained, it was throughout your citizenship interview, as we famous. Do you continue to need to change into an American citizen?
Mohsen Mahdawi: The query of changing into an American citizen is expounded to my deep perception in democracy, within the rules and values that it holds.
And the reply that I’m ready for isn’t essentially from authorities officers which might be making an attempt to destroy each component of democracy that this nation has. The reply that I’m ready for, I’ve acquired from my individuals in Vermont, from Vermonters, who marched, who chanted, who sang, who protested, and who welcomed me after I got here out of jail.
It is a clear message for me that my quest for the citizenship has been answered of the individuals who I really like probably the most on this nation, my Vermonter individuals.
Laura Barron-Lopez: Mohsen Mahdawi, thanks to your time.
Mohsen Mahdawi: An ideal pleasure. Thanks.
