OUSTED CNN host Rick Santorum has accused the network of bowing to cancel culture and claims he was “savaged for telling the truth” after being dropped for his remarks about Native Americans.
Santorum was accused of racism and xenophobia last month when he told a crowd at a conservative youth group event that “there was nothing” in the US before European colonizers arrived.
Santorum was discussing how American culture has not “changed much,” over the centuries since the nation’s founding in comparison to other countries.
“We came here and created a blank slate. We birthed a nation from nothing – I mean there was nothing here,” Santorum said during a Young America’s Foundation’s Standing Up for Faith & Freedom Conference in April.
“I mean, yes, we have Native Americans,” he went on. “But candidly, there isn’t much Native American culture in American culture.”
“It was born of the people who came here, pursuing religious liberty, to practice their faith, to live as they ought to live and have the freedom to do so,” he added.
After the comments received backlash, Santorum appeared on CNN’s Prime Time with Chris Cuomo to insist he’d misspoken but defended the intent of his remarks.
However, the former Republican Senator was fired by CNN on Saturday.
He voiced his disappointment over the decision and blamed “cancel culture” for his firing.
“You get savaged for telling the truth,” he told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Monday.
“What I said was not at all disparaging towards Native Americans: What I was talking about is the founding of the United States of America and that Native Americans did not have a role in the founding of our country.”
Santorum continued that “you can say that’s a bad thing or a good thing or the way we treated Native Americans was bad, but I was giving a talk to a group of young people talking about the founding principles of religious liberty.”
That discussion, he said, was intended to highlight “how important it was to the immigrants who came here to found this country. And that was an important value that was imbued into our Constitution.”
Santorum also took issue with his former colleague Don Lemon, who, after Santorum’s appearance on Cuomo’s show, blasted him for “whitewashing whitewash.”
In his dressing down, Lemon fumed: “I mean, Rick Santorum, really?! Did he actually think it was a good idea for him to come on television and try to whitewash the whitewash that he whitewashed?! It was horrible and insulting!
“And I apologize to the viewers who were insulted by it. I was sitting in my office furious because he’s done it so many times! So many times!”
Responding to Lemon on Monday night, Santorum said: “Don Lemon came on right after my interview and said that Native Americans founded the United States of America.
“And again, you are entitled to your opinion, but not the facts, and that’s where I think we have gotten off-kilter here a little bit in America.”
He then went on to accuse CNN of being “intolerant.”
“I have no animus, I appreciate the opportunity that they [CNN] gave me, but it shows that the left is intolerant,” he said.
“And I hear from a lot of liberals – in fact, many CNN contributors – who talked to me afterward who were very, very concerned about the cancel culture that is now hitting them at CNN.”
Some media analysts have suggested that Santorum’s firing may be a distraction from the scandal enveloping Chris Cuomo.
Cuomo was recently forced to apologize after it was revealed he joined strategy calls to help his brother, New York Gov Andrew Cuomo, deal with the fallout from a slew of sexual harassment allegations.
“Santorum being fired now, in late May, for comments he made in April that CNN tried to scuttle outrage over via apologetic appearances on other network shows is nothing more than a distraction from the news it won’t punish Chris Cuomo for secretly strategizing with his brother,” commentator Jordan Uhl tweeted.
Insiders at the network have also expressed their disappointment over a lack of discipline against Chris Cuomo.
“I’m very disappointed in the network,” a woman who works on-air at CNN told The Daily Beast. “I think some disciplinary action, at a minimum, was required in this situation.
“As a woman who works here, I feel a little let down, to be honest,” she said.
An unnamed contributor added: “Chris Cuomo’s concern for his brother is admirable but working to discredit the multiple women who have accused Andrew Cuomo of sexual impropriety is both journalistically and morally immoral.”
For his part, Chris Cuomo admitted it was a “mistake” to join the calls, but said that “of course” he was going to give his brother advice, adding: “It’s family first, job second.”
CNN called Cuomo’s actions “inappropriate” but said he wouldn’t any face disciplinary measures.
