CNN political commentator Rick Santorum is in hot water after making comments about Native American culture and the lack of it in America.
Last week, Santorum gave a speech about “birthing a nation from nothing” at the Standing Up For Faith & Freedom Conference for the Young America’s Foundation, a conservative youth organization. A video clip from his address went viral.
“We came here and created a blank slate. 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,” the former Pennsylvania senator said.
CNN’s Rick Santorum: “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” pic.twitter.com/EMxOEYDbg7
“It was born of the people who came here pursuing religious liberty, to practice their faith, live as they ought to live, and have the freedom to do so.”
Responses to the tweet varied from diving deeper into why Native American culture is missing to calls for CNN to terminate him.
Could it be there is no “Native American culture” because our government wiped it out by supplying them with smallpox-infested blankets, stripped tribes of their land, tore their families apart, Americanized their names, took their children and sent them to reeducation schools?
@CNN Do you really think having this guy on staff makes CNN look smarter?
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In the beginning of the video clip, Santorum said he didn’t know of any other country that was “settled by people who were coming to practice their faith.” He said the mostly European settlers came with Judeo-Christian principles and the teachings of Jesus Christ.
“That’s what our founding documents are based on,” he said. “It’s in our DNA.”
The 2016 presidential candidate has made waves with his statements before.
Santorum made controversial comments to students in 2018, about their efforts to change gun laws after a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
“How about kids instead of looking to someone else to solve their problem, do something about maybe taking CPR classes or trying to deal with situations that when there is a violent shooter that you can actually respond to that,” Santorum said as a guest on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Calls to CNN and Santorum’s organization, Patriot Voices, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from USA TODAY.
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