CNN Drops Rick Santorum After Racist Comments About Native Americans

[Miles Archer]

CNN Drops Rick Santorum After Racist Comments About Native Americans

POLITICS 05/22/2021 02:07 pm ET

By Jennifer Bendery

The former GOP senator lost his contract with the network after claiming there was “nothing” in America before white colonizers arrived.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/rick-santorum-cnn-native-americans_n_60a92fa6e4b0313547978140

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.

“We birthed a nation from nothing. I mean, there was nothing here,” Santorum told students during remarks at a Young America’s Foundation event. “I mean, yes, we have Native Americans, but candidly, there isn’t much Native American culture in American culture.”

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.

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.

[Sneederbunk]

1. I dread the replacement, and there will be a replacement.

[FakeNoose]

2. Pennsylvanians are saying "good riddance"

Not that many of us watched him on CNN anyway. What a waste of space THAT guy is!

[vercetti2021]

3. Long overdue

Should have sent him to the moon.

[bearsfootball516]

4. Should have dropped him a long, long time ago.

[blue neen]

5. Finally!

It took them long enough!

[Haggard Celine]

6. They never should have hired him in the first place.

Santorum has a long history of making bigoted comments. He represents RW Christians more than anybody else, and those fuckers are always spewing toxic political and religious sentiment. If they need someone from the right on their shows, they need to find a mainstream non-Trumper. Santorum's views are too far out there to be given attention.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

7. This makes me smile

Link to tweet

[msfiddlestix]

8. What I don't understand, is what the eff took them so long?

[MoonRiver]

9. Yes!

[yellowcanine]

10. 3, 2, 1 wait for it........Cancel Culture!

Never mind that no one has the right to be paid for punditry.

[AZLD4Candidate]

15. Beat me to it.

[keithbvadu2]

11. Especially not any 'blah' people. Eh, Rick?

Especially not any 'blah' people. Eh, Rick?

Frothy does a pretty good job of cancel culture.

[Grins]

12. Two questions...

1.
Why “quietly”?
2.
Why so long?

[11 Bravo]

13. Foolish bleating from people not understanding that the First Amendment does NOT ...

apply to private businesses who don't care to pay hate-mongers for spewing their shit in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...

[Vinca]

14. Good. If ever there was a person on CNN you could count on to kiss Trump's hiney, it was Rick.

[Pinback]

16. Good -- CNN will be better without Frothy Mix.

Now, let's see what odious right-wing hack they hire to provide that much-needed "other side of the aisle" balance.

[spanone]

17. took them long enough.

[Picaro]

18. Never should have been hired

CNN does a good job on a lot of stuff, but their urge to be on both sides of an issue gets the better of them frequently.

Before Santorum I think they were paying Hugh Hewitt. When will they learn? These are extremist fringe crazies. Santorum hasn't ever said anything worth listening to in my memory. Hell, if you want to feature crazies from Minnesota why not go with Michele Bachman. She's easier to look at -- although that screechy Minnesota twang is right up there with Sarah Palin on the nails-on-a-blackboard scale.

[NQAS]

19. Maybe

Just maybe, MSM will stop giving air tine to racists, bigots, misogynists and white supremacists. They bring nothing useful to any discussion.

[Midnight Writer]

20. Technically, he wasn't dropped for racist comments.

He was dropped for not defending his racist remarks cleverly enough.

[Shermann]

22. Really I would characterize his statement as ineloquent rather than racist

CNN's Token Conservative needs to be able to tap dance around the talking points more artfully.

[Ohio Joe]

26. No... It was a flat out lie done with the intention of erasing history...

And that is racist.

[Shermann]

27. He already walked it back and said he mispoke

So if he was trying to "erase history", it was a pretty weak effort.

[Ohio Joe]

29. oh... I see...

He walked it back... So it was weak... So... What? Less racist? I guess when racists say racist things they just need to say them more eloquently so they are less racist. Sheesh

[Shermann]

30. The real problem with his statement is that it is largely true

There really isn’t much Native American culture in American culture. There is some of course, and the history of America is eternal, but it all has largely been diluted by the influence of other European cultures. That's how genocide works. Their culture was annihilated and replaced with a mix of European cultures. Their languages, which are the heart of any culture, are dead or dying. So it is true but nothing to brag about. Santorum's statements are tone-deaf and inconsiderate and marginalize that small remaining post-genocidal influence to "nothing". That's a better characterization than the go-to "racist" label.

[catrose]

21. Bout time

[DFW]

23. A downright disgrace

Not that CNN got rid of him, but that it took something THIS egregious for them to take the step.

[House of Roberts]

24. Well, now he's free to pursue more lucrative offers from OANN or Newmax.

ReTrumplicans always fail upward.

[CentralMass]

25. Good.

[Takket]

28. the mistake is to ever sign people like this in the first place