Political commentator and journalist Mehdi Hasan spoke out about his shocking viral debate with 20 right-wingers that aired Sunday on Jubilee, calling at least half of them “explicitly fascist or white nationalist.”
The debate amassed millions of views online as Jubilee faced backlash for featuring far-right extremists, including one who proclaimed himself to be a fascist and another who told Hasan to “get out” of the United States.
The progressive journalist told The Bulwark’s Tim Miller that he usually doesn’t “turn down invitations to debate unless it’s in bad faith” and tries not to “debate fascists and racists.”
But Hasan said that “it became very clear” to him early on that he was dealing with far more than he’d bargained for.
“I came away, uh, pretty stunned, and it takes a lot to make me speechless,” he told Miller.
He added that a friend who had watched the debate said, “That was not a TV recording, that felt more like a low-key KKK rally.”
“This is the masks-off, hoods-on moment that we’re living through right now, where a lot of these people thought this stuff 10 years, 15 years ago, but they wouldn’t have had the guts to come on YouTube and say it,” Hasan said.
Hasan acknowledged that Jubilee was criticized for featuring some of these extremist viewpoints at all, but also argued that “maybe it’s time to show up and mock these people and point out what freaks they are.”
But he said that one conservative, an undocumented immigrant named Edwin, stood out to him.
Edwin said he was an undocumented immigrant in the U.S. who benefited from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. DACA, an Obama-era executive order, granted undocumented children in the U.S. temporary protection from deportation as well as work authorization, but without a pathway to citizenship or legal status.
“He volunteered to self-identify as a far-right conservative, but then sat across the table from me and talked about how he didn’t agree with the racists in the room, and that his parents came and they came illegally, what they did, what they had to do for their family,” Hasan recalled. “It was very sad. It was very touching, actually, but it was interesting that he kind of stood out.”
Hasan, who immigrated to the U.S. from England and now holds dual citizenship, told Edwin, “I think immigrants have been a net positive. I think if you look at your everyday lives, we all benefit from immigration.”
Edwin responded, “And what kind of conservatives disagree with that?”
“Some of the guys who told me to leave this place and go back,” Hasan replied.
Ultimately, Edwin agreed with Hasan that “everyone is an immigrant in the sense,” further asking the journalist about his own immigration journey.
The conversation between Hasan and Edwin begins at the 58:17 mark of the Jubilee debate, but only lasts about two minutes before the conservative is voted out by his disapproving fellow debaters.
In the Bulwark interview, Miller asked Hasan if Edwin might have had an eye-opening moment during their brief conversation. Hasan said he got that feeling sitting across the table from him.
“I looked around the room and I was like, You’re a brave guy, because I’m sure the majority of the room wants to call ICE on you right now,” Hasan said.
Watch the full Bulwark interview below.