Former Republican Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum explained Saturday at a conference why he thought he was fired as a commentator from CNN.
“Once the value that I brought to the network was less because Trump wasn’t in the news very much anymore, they decided it wasn’t worth it. The juice wasn’t worth the squeeze,” Yahoo News reported.
Santorum explained that the network was looking for conservatives who would be critical of former President Donald Trump. “I felt my responsibility to the country, not to CNN, but to the country, was to call it as I saw it and hold Trump to the values that I think are important for the country … I would call him out and say, you know, this is not what I would do, and this is not how a president should behave.”
The former Senator added that whenever he defended former President Trump, it would drive CNN “crazy.”
“But with Trump gone, then my utility was pretty much diminished,” he said. “They made a business decision that you know, look, ‘as an asset, he’s not as valuable to us as he used to be.'”
Santorum joined CNN as a contributor in 2017 but was let go by the network after saying at a conference, “there isn’t much Native American culture in American culture.” (RELATED: ‘Egregious And Insulting’: Don Lemon Battles With Chris Cuomo For Bringing Rick Santorum On His Show)
A CNN senior executive told the Huffington Post that the network “quietly ended its contract with Santorum.” The executive said the decision to boot Santorum came when he appeared on “Cuomo Prime Time” with host Chris Cuomo and “blew it” with his explanation of the comments.
“I wanted to give you a chance to explain yourself, because that’s what this show is about.”
Tonight @ChrisCuomo asked Rick Santorum about Santorum’s widely-condemned comments on Native American culture – here’s the entire clip pic.twitter.com/yXZeIsGnpd
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) May 4, 2021
The former CNN contributor was fired from the network in late May after he for a comment he made about Native Americans.
In May, Santorum told Fox News’s Sean Hannity what he said was “not at all disparaging toward Native Americans.”
“What I was talking about is the founding of the United States of America. Native Americans did not have a role in the founding of our country.”