After being fired by CNN over the weekend for making admittedly clumsy remarks about Native Americans and the founding of the United States, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum appeared with Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity Monday night to discuss what happened. And according to Santorum, he had talked with liberals at CNN who were “concerned” about the network’s adoption of “cancel culture.”
Over the course of the interview, Santorum admitted that he misspoke and explained what he meant. And Hannity lamented how that wasn’t enough anymore. “I said people can make mistakes and move on. But not anymore, now it's, Oh, if you say something, you can even revise and extend your remarks, apologize, explain in more detail what you meant, nobody wants to hear it,” he decried.
Apparently, there were people at CNN who agreed with Hannity in private. “And I hear from a lot of liberals, in fact, many CNN contributors who talk to me afterwards who were very, very concerned about the cancel culture that’s now hitting them at CNN,” Santorum shared.
Santorum also explained that “CNN has a right to fire me if they don't like what I'm saying or what they are doing” and that he had “no animus towards CNN.” But he argued that their decision to fire him “does show that the left is intolerant.”
The notion that CNN was intolerant of conservatives was confirmed on Sunday during their media program Reliable Sources. During the show, CNN columnist and Columbia University “scholar” Nicole Hemmer admitted that Santorum was fired because “the tolerance of CNN and its audience for those [conservative] beliefs seems to have changed.”
The former Senator did have some nice things to say about CNN as he pointed out how they had him at the network for over four years and they ignored the pressure to fire him during that time:
Well, I think – you know, you pointed to some of it, that there has been a lot of pressure from outside. There has been an effort. I was at CNN for four and a half years. And you know, literally from the time that I started there were groups out there calling for me to be fired. And so, in some respects I give CNN credit for holding on four and a half years in spite of some of the things I’d said defending President Trump and saying other things about what conservatives believe. And they gave me the opportunity to say it.
“And this case, it's a little disappointing because as you mention what I said was not at all disparaging towards Native Americans,” he said. “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.”
He also called out CNN host Don Lemon’s ludicrous claim that “Europeans did not found this country!” “And again, you’re entitled to your opinion. You’re not entitled to the facts, and that's where I think we’ve gotten off-kilter here a little bit in America,” he shot back.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
Fox News Channel’s Hannity
May 24, 2021
9:40:10 p.m. EasternSEAN HANNITY: Now former Republican Senator Rick Santorum, just recently departed fake news CNN after remarks he made at a Young Americans Foundation event about Native Americans, the founding of the country, where he said, quote, "We birthed a nation from nothing. Yes, there were Native Americans, but there isn't much Native American culture and American culture.”
Now despite Santorum admitting multiple times that he misspoke and trying to clarify his remarks on fake new CNN, and what he was specifically talking about, that's not enough for the left-wing outrage machine and the woke cancel culture social warriors that pressured fake news CNN to cave to the mob and cut ties with like the one guy that had a different point of view, Rick Santorum,
But here's a question that I have for fake news CNN, have you made a decision yet about Jeffrey Toobin's future? You know, the guy caught on the Zoom call, let's say enjoying himself a little too much. I could mention a few other people that are still working there too.
Here to respond, Senator Rick Santorum. Senator, how are you?
[Crosstalk]
You made these comments. You say in an interview numerous times that you misspoke, and you explain what you meant, why the firing?
RICK SANTORUM: Well, I think – you know, you pointed to some of it, that there has been a lot of pressure from outside. There has been an effort. I was at CNN for four and a half years. And you know, literally from the time that I started there were groups out there calling for me to be fired. And so, in some respects I give CNN credit for holding on four and a half years in spite of some of the things I’d said defending President Trump and saying other things about what conservatives believe. And they gave me the opportunity to say it.
And this case, it's a little disappointing because as you mention 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.
Now, 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 and 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.
So, one of the things that I am concerned about is that you get savaged by telling the truth and I told the truth here and you have other people who believe you know, Don Lemon came on right after my interview and said that Native Americans founded the United States of America. And again, you’re entitled to your opinion. You’re not entitled to the facts, and that's where I think we’ve gotten off-kilter here a little bit in America.
(…)
HANNITY: I said people can make mistakes and move on. But not anymore, now it's, Oh, if you say something, you can even revise and extend your remarks, apologize, explain in more detail what you meant, nobody wants to hear it. And I'm sick of it, to be honest.
SANTORUM: No, this is – I couldn’t agree with you more, Sean. In many, many cases throughout my entire career people have been called to be fired for saying this and fired for saying this and I have defended their right, and say, “Look, people have a right to their opinion.”
And by the way, CNN has a right to fire me if they don't like what I'm saying or what they are doing. They were right to fire me. I have no animus towards CNN. Like I said, I appreciate the opportunity they gave me. But I think it does show that the left is intolerant.
They’re worried, I'm sure, that their viewership, which is obviously very left, was – they were going to pay a price. And the intolerance of the left is really the issue here and the cancel culture that is flowing from it. And I hear from a lot of liberals, in fact, many CNN contributors who talk to me afterwards who were very, very concerned about the cancel culture that’s now hitting them at CNN.
(…)
