Former MSNBC reporter and host Mehdi Hasan has joined The Guardian as columnist. His first column on Wednesday exhorted President Biden to use his leverage to effect a ceasefire in Israel’s ongoing attacks in Gaza. Hasan compared Biden’s leverage to Ronald Reagan, who in a 20-minute phone call in 1982 was able to force Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to cease an assault on Beirut that had gone on for weeks and cost thousands of civilian lives.
Hasan is a British-American journalist who was born in England and gained US citizenship in 2020, just in time to vote in the US Presidential election. He holds a degree from Oxford in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. Prior to joining MSNBC, he worked as journalist and editor at BBC, Al Jazeera, and The Intercept as host of the podcast Deconstructed. In 2020, he joined NBC’s streaming service Peacock as host of The Mehdi Hasan Show. During his stint at Peacock and MSNBC, Hasan gained a reputation as a no-nonsense interviewer who often challenged the malarkey in his guests’ arguments. He is author of the New York Times bestseller, Win Every Argument.