Native American Groups Call for Rick Santorum’s Firing: ‘An Unhinged and Embarrassing Racist Who Disgraces CNN’

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CNN senior political commentator Rick Santorum is facing growing calls for him to be fired from the network after comments he made about Native Americans, including from multiple Native American organizations.

“We birthed a nation from nothing,” Santorum said during a speech to a conservative youth group. “I mean, there was nothing here. I mean, yes, we have Native Americans, but candidly that — there isn’t much Native American culture in American culture.”

Santorum’s comments drew immediate criticism, including from several former CNN personalities and other cable news hosts.

Huffington Post senior politics reporter Jennifer Bendery collected several statements from Native American groups condemning Santorum.

“Rick Santorum is an unhinged and embarrassing racist who disgraces CNN and any other media company that provides him a platform,” said Fawn Sharp, the president of the National Congress of American Indians, in a statement provided to HuffPost. “Televising someone with his views on Native American genocide is fundamentally no different than putting an outright Nazi on television to justify the Holocaust. Any mainstream media organization should fire him or face a boycott from more than 500 tribal nations and our allies from across the country and worldwide.”

“Make your choice,” Sharp continued. “Do you stand with White Supremacists justifying Native American genocide, or do you stand with Native Americans?

“American history that does not include Native peoples is a lie,” said Crystal Echo Hawk, the executive director of IllumiNative, “and Rick Santorum is fueling white supremacy by erasing the history of Native peoples.” She also called on CNN to fire Santorum.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) also issued a press release urging CNN fire Santorum.

“CNN should never again invite Rick Santorum as a commentator after he attempted to whitewash the European genocide of this continent’s indigenous population and to dismiss the significance of Native America culture,” said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad. “We strongly support free speech — even by apparent white supremacists like Mr. Santorum — but freedom of speech does not guarantee a legitimizing platform on a mainstream media outlet.”

Late Monday, Santorum issued a statement to HuffPost that he “had no intention of minimizing or in any way devaluing Native American culture.”

So far, CNN has not commented on the controversy.