On Saturday, the Huffington Post reported (https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_60a92fa6e4b0313547978140?6pa) that Rick Santorum has been fired by CNN as a commentator following racist remarks about Native Americans.
"Santorum, a former Republican senator and two-time failed GOP presidential candidate, sparked outrage last month after claiming there was "nothing" in America before white colonizers arrived and that Native people haven't contributed much to American culture, anyway," reported Jennifer Bendery.
"Prominent Indigenous-led organizations including the National Congress of American Indians and Illuminative have spent weeks demanding that CNN fire Santorum over his remarks. National civil rights groups have also called for his firing. CNN has stayed silent on the matter," said the report. "But on Saturday, a CNN senior executive told HuffPost that the network quietly ended its contract with Santorum this week. This executive, who requested anonymity to speak openly, said the decision to cut ties with Santorum came after he went on one of the network's shows, "Cuomo Prime Time," to explain himself shortly after he made his racist comments. He blew it, said this executive, and after that, nobody at the network wanted to keep him around."
The National Congress of American Indians blasted CNN for employing Santorum.
"Rick Santorum is an unhinged and embarrassing racist who disgraces CNN and any other media company that provides him a platform," NCAI president Fawn Sharp said in a fiery statement last month that went viral. "Televising someone with his views on Native American genocide is fundamentally no different than putting an outright Nazi on television to justify the Holocaust. Any mainstream media organization should fire him or face a boycott from more than 500 tribal nations and our allies from across the country and worldwide."
CNN anchor Don Lemon had publicly voiced his confusion as to why Santorum still worked at the network.
"People are tired of being insulted," Lemon said.
Don Lemon is really in no mood for Chris Cuomo's excuses on Rick Santorum. "We are not getting anywhere... We got… https://t.co/OAstMb5444— Justin Baragona (@Justin Baragona) 1620095189.0
