Just weeks after a similar incident last month, C-SPAN host Pedro Echevarria was forced to cut off a racist caller during his Washington Journal call-in show this week.
The incident happened during a discussion of the mass shooting in Buffalo, New York over the weekend, which appears to have been a hate crime targeting Black people by a White gunmen who wrote a shockingly racist manifesto in advance of the shooting.
The caller—a self-identified Republican named John—went on a rant because Echevarria would not indulge his repeated change of subject to other recent shootings that involved gunmen who were not White.
The rant escalated to a profane accusation of racism on Echevarria's part and he was forced to hang up on the caller.
See the moment below.
John's call into the show went sideways practically from the very beginning. He started by insulting Echevarria and his show.
"It's stir-the-pot Sunday. Baby CNN here trying to get everybody to hate each other on a Sunday."
John then began a rant on so-called "Black on Black crime," a common talking-point among conservatives.
"Like the first caller—he thinks White people are systematically out hunting Black people."
"I guess he doesn't watch channel 6 news in Philadephia, where Blacks kill Blacks three, four in the middle of the afternoon."
When Echevarria tried to redirect John back to the topic at hand by asking him what he thinks of the Buffalo shooting, the man became even more agitated.
"I don't think nothing of it!"
"Because I think you're just trying to start a race war."
He then began ranting about two recent killings involving non-white assailants: the attack in Waukesha, Wisconsin in which a Black man drove his car into a parade, and last month's New York City subway shooting perpetrated by a Black gunman.
When John expressed outrage that these incidents were not considered race crimes, Echevarria once again attempted to get John back on-topic.
He then exploded in anger, calling the New York city subway shooter a racist who was hunting White people.
"How does it relate?"
"He is a racist!"
"He went from Philadelphia to New York just to kill White people on a subway."
When Echevarria refused to indulge John's repeated redirection of the conversation and yet again asked him how these incidents are relevant to the Buffalo shooting, John erupted, exclaiming:
"You're a goddamn racist!"
Echevarria quickly cut him off to inform him he can't use foul language on-air and then hung up on him.
On Twitter, John's unhinged rant left some people shocked.
Whoa.... \n\nC-SPAN host cuts off profane caller who accuses him of being 'racist' because Buffalo shooter was whitehttps://www.rawstory.com/cspan-racist-caller-2657324492/\u00a0\u2026— Sarah Burris \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6 (@Sarah Burris \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6) 1652661180
It's funny how whenever a white person does something like this that the republican response is "what about all the black on black violence?" as if that somehow justifies a racist attack.— \ud83d\udd25Rift Raving Rogue\ud83d\udd25 (@\ud83d\udd25Rift Raving Rogue\ud83d\udd25) 1652650157
It\u2019s never going to end. This caller was a nut. \n\nC-SPAN host cuts off profane caller who accuses him of being 'racist' because Buffalo shooter was whitehttps://www.rawstory.com/cspan-racist-caller-2657324492/\u00a0\u2026— Alder Wood (@Alder Wood) 1652640031
Kudos to Pedro Echevarria for not simply telling this racist idiot, "Hit dogs holler." #CSPAN #BuffaloShooting #GOP #PedroEchevarria #HateCrimehttps://dlvr.it/SQSSmv— Crooks and Liars (@Crooks and Liars) 1652703963
Here we go.\n\nYou can't maintain supremacy without pretending you're the victim.\n\n#TrumpKluxKlanhttps://twitter.com/jilevin/status/1526192640798035968\u00a0\u2026— Keith Fitzgerald (@Keith Fitzgerald) 1652708100
CSPAN Caller Calls Host 'Racist' For Saying Buffalo Shooter Is White | Crooks and Liars\n\nThe racists are playing the victim.https://crooksandliars.com/2022/05/c-span-caller-accuses-host-being-racist\u00a0\u2026— Mike (@Mike) 1652706165
the caller blamed everyone except the guy who did the killings— American Joseph\u00ae (@American Joseph\u00ae) 1652699733
pic.twitter.com/uBvDzhqpmW— Derek Friday (@Derek Friday) 1652699471
Looks like 50% of Pedro Echevarria's job is to deal with racist callers. I could never handle it.\n\n pic.twitter.com/eHOWNNLgrN https://twitter.com/BenPu_nbc/status/1518765213293686784\u00a0\u2026— Oliver Darko (@Oliver Darko) 1652638820
This incident comes just weeks after Echevarria was forced to hang up on another Republican caller for calling Black people "colored" on-air.