Conservative radio host Glenn Beck has been suspended by satellite radio company SiriusXM Holdings Inc. after a recent interview appeared to suggest assassinating Donald Trump if he became president.

A May 25 interview with novelist Brad Thor, who specializes in fictional political thrillers, veered to a hypothetical discussion of what would happen if a President Trump overstepped his legal authority and Congress was incapable of impeaching him. “If Congress won’t remove him from office, what patriot will step up and do that,” Thor asked.

“I would agree with you on that,” Beck replied.

To some, that sounded close enough to condoning assassination.

“SiriusXM encourages a diversity of discourse and opinion on our talk programs,” the company said in a statement Tuesday. “However, comments recently made by a guest on the independently produced Glenn Beck Program, in our judgement, may be reasonably construed by some to have been advocating harm against an individual currently running for office, which we cannot and will not condone.”

SiriusXM SIRI, -2.82% said Beck would be suspended for the rest of the week, and his future with the network will be evaluated.

Both Beck and Thor said their comments were being taken out of context. On a Facebook post, Beck wrote: “So evil. That is NOT what he meant, nor is it what we thought. How evil do you have to be to think this?”

In an interview last week with The Blaze’s Dana Loesch, Thor denied making a threat after a furor was first raised by the Drudge Report blog. “Hell no, I wasn’t talking about assassination,” he said.

In a statement to the Associated Press, Thor said he and Beck “were discussing a speculative future America under a dictator.”

“Safeguarding the Republic against a dictatorship is a topic of conversation that dates back to the Founders,” Thor said. “If we had to unseat a president without the backing of the Congress, we would need a patriot along the lines of George Washington to lead the country from tyranny back to liberty.”

“The Glenn Beck Program” is one of the most popular shows on talk radio, syndicated to more than 400 stations around the U.S., as well as SiriusXM. Premiere Networks, which syndicates the show, said it had no plans to suspend Beck.