CNN has parted ways with conservative commentator Rick Santorum.
HuffPost broke the news Saturday afternoon.
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.
The remarks that got Santorum booted from the network:
CNN’s Rick Santorum: “We birthed a nation from nothing. I mean, there was nothing here. I mean, yes we have Native Americans but candidly there isn’t much Native American culture in American culture” pic.twitter.com/EMxOEYDbg7
— Jason Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) April 26, 2021
The decision to cut ties with Santorum reportedly came shortly after his May 3 appearance on Cuomo Primetime, where he attempted to explain his remarks:
“No, no, no, no, no. Just to be clear, what I was not saying was that Native American culture–I misspoke. What I was talking about is, as you can see from the run-up, 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. In fact, I mentioned them because, yes, they were here and did have an impact. You’re right. They have a huge impact, particularly in the west and many other areas of the country, where they have a huge impact on American culture. I was talking about — and I misspoke in this respect — I was talking about the founding and the principles embodied in the founding. I would never — and people said I’m trying to dismiss what we did to the Native Americans, far from it. The way we treated Native Americans was horrific.”
A CNN senior executive told HuffPost, “Leadership wasn’t particularly satisfied with that appearance. None of the anchors wanted to book him. So he was essentially benched anyway.”
No stranger to cable news, Santorum spent four years as a Fox News contributor before the network terminated his contract in May 2011. He had been suspended by the network for 60 days in March 2011, as he had considered running in the 2012 Republican Presidential primary (which he eventually did).
Santorum also ran in the 2016 Republican Presidential primary, but obviously did not come out victorious that year either.