Are You Pleased He's Dead? Piers Morgan Grills Mehdi Hasan on Ayatollah

In a tense exchange on Piers Morgan Uncensored, Piers Morgan repeatedly pressed journalist Mehdi Hasan to answer a single yes-or-no question: "Are you pleased that the now dead Ayatollah Khamenei is no longer ruling Iran?" Hasan refused to give a simple answer, arguing the question was a "vacuum" that ignored the illegal assassination, the replacement by Khamenei's son, and the broader consequences. The episode, which also featured Iranian-American actor Sam Asghari, became a revealing window into the deep divisions over the US-Israeli war on Iran—not just between pro- and anti-war camps, but within the anti-war coalition itself.

The Question That Wouldn't Die

Morgan's opening gambit set the tone for the entire interview. He asked Hasan directly: "Are you pleased that the now dead Ayatollah Khamenei is no longer ruling Iran?" Hasan refused to answer with a simple yes or no, arguing the question was a "vacuum" that ignored the illegal assassination, the replacement by Khamenei's son, and the broader consequences. "I don't take pleasure in killing anyone," Hasan said. "I don't think you should have illegally killed the leader of a foreign nation, who's also a spiritual leader to millions of Shia Muslims around the world."