CNN has terminated its contract with political commentator Rick Santorum after he made racist comments about Native Americans.
A senior executive at CNN told Huffpost on Saturday that the network ended its contract with the former Republican senator.
Last month, Santorum faced backlash when he said during a speech that there was “nothing here” before white people stumbled on what they later renamed “America.”
“We came here and created a blank slate,” he told young conservatives members of the Young America’s Foundation. “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.”
The CNN executive said the decision to fire Santorum came after he went on “Cuomo Prime Time,” to explain himself after he made his racist comments. Santorum told Cuomo that he “misspoke” and that his comments were “out of context.”
CNN was not satisfied with Santorum’s explanation. He blew it, the executive told Huffpost, and after that, nobody at the network wanted to keep him around.
“Leadership wasn’t particularly satisfied with that appearance. None of the anchors wanted to book him,” said the executive. “So he was essentially benched anyway.”
“I think after that appearance, it was pretty clear we couldn’t use him again,” the executive added.
Santorum’s observations are narrow minded and irrelevant. He’s a has been and should be ignored.