CNN has terminated its contract with senior political commentator Rick Santorum after racist, inaccurate remarks he made about Native Americans. (HuffPost)
Santorum, a former Republican senator from Pennsylvania and two-time presidential candidate who joined CNN as a paid commentator in January 2017, sparked widespread anger back in April after claiming there was “nothing” in America before white colonizers arrived and that Native Americans haven’t contributed much to American culture. (TVNewser)
The comment prompted Fawn Sharp, president of the National Congress of American Indians, to call him “an unhinged and embarrassing racist who disgraces CNN and any other media company that provides him a platform.” (Politico)
Days after the comments, Santorum walked them back on CNN’s Cuomo Prime Time. “I misspoke,” Santorum told the program’s host, Chris Cuomo. “I was talking about the founding of our country. I had given a long talk about the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the ideas behind those, and that I was saying we sort of created that anew, if you will. And I was not trying to dismiss Native Americans.” (NYT)
“Leadership wasn’t particularly satisfied with that appearance. None of the anchors wanted to book him,” a CNN senior executive told HuffPost. “So he was essentially benched anyway.” (Slate)