CNN Finally Fires Rick Santorum

Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum saw his gig as senior political commentator for CNN go up in smoke this week after he was canned for racist comments.

Santorum, who twice ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination, spoke last month at a Young America's Foundation event where he told the crowd, "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."

Outrage quickly ensued from both Native American groups and decent people shocked at the racist, revisionist talking points. CNN tried to clean up his mess by having him explain his statements on the network's Cuomo Prime Time program, but the arch-conservative didn't apologize for his attack on Native Americans, instead saying the comments were taken "out of context." That sealed his fate, according to a report in HuffPost, which said executives terminated his contract this week.

"I think after that appearance, it was pretty clear we couldn't use him again," an anonymous CNN executive told HuffPost on Saturday.

Many were bewildered that CNN even hired Santorum in the first place, since the former politician built a career demonizing LGBTQ+ people. As recently as 2019, Santorum, utilizing CNN's platform, compared Pete Buttigieg's homosexuality with Donald Trump's infidelities.

Santorum is known for his many other anti-LGBTQ+ stances, including his infamous 2003 comment that if the Supreme Court recognized a right to any type of consensual sex, it could find a right to "man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be." Later that year the court struck down antisodomy laws, but legalization of pedophilia and bestiality has not followed.

The comment led journalist Dan Savage to ask his readers for a new definition of the word "Santorum," and the winning entry defined it as a by-product of anal sex. Google searches for "Santorum" still turn up that definition.