Rick Santorum is reportedly out at CNN.
Sources tell the Huffington Post that the former GOP senator and presidential candidate was fired by the network over his racist comments about Indigenous people. Santorum, who became a CNN political commentator in 2017, made the pro-colonization remarks while speaking at a Young America’s Foundation event less than a month ago.
“We came here and created a blank slate. We birthed a nation from nothing,” he said about European settlers. “… We birthed a nation from nothing, I mean nothing was here. I mean, yes, we have Native Americans, but candidly, there isn’t much Native American culture in American culture.”
His comments immediately drew backlash from the Indigenous population, activists, and national civil rights groups, many of whom called on CNN to cut ties with the conservative figure.
“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 statement last month. “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.”
But despite the growing demands to fire Santorum, the network heads remained silent.
An anonymous CNN executive told the Huffington Post that the team ultimately decided to end Santorum’s contract after his appearance on Cuomo Prime Time earlier this month. Santorum told host Chris Cuomo that his comments on Native Americans were taken out of context and he never intended to dismiss their cultures.
“What I was talking about is the founding of the country,” Santorum said to Cuomo, “I gave a long talk about the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, and what I was saying is that we sort of created that anew, if you will. I was not trying to dismiss Native Americans. In fact, I mentioned them because they were here and they did have an impact. In fact, in this country you are right, they have a huge impact.”
But the explanation apparently didn’t satisfy the network or any of its lead voices.
“Leadership wasn’t particularly satisfied with that appearance,” the executive told the Huffington Post. “None of the anchors wanted to book him. So he was essentially benched anyway.”
