CNN fires Trump pundit for Nazi tweet
CNN fired commentator Jeffrey Lord on Thursday after he tweeted the Nazi salutation “Sieg Heil!” in response to a feud with a liberal activist.
“Nazi salutes are indefensible,” a CNN spokesperson said in a statement. “Jeffrey Lord is no longer with the network.”
Lord, a former official in the Reagan administration, has been featured on many CNN panels and has been a reliable defender of President Donald Trump. He began working with the network during the presidential campaign, and has spoken on behalf of Trump since then.
His undoing was an outgrowth of an argument between Lord and Angelo Carusone, the president of Media Matters for America, a liberal media watchdog group critical of Lord.
In a column for the conservative American Spectator on Thursday, Lord called Carusone’s group the “Media Matters Fascists.”
Lord referenced his column in a tweet aimed at Carusone, who tweeted back. Carusone asked, “Why do you expect anyone to take you seriously when you don’t take yourself seriously.”
Lord’s responded by tweeting back “Sieg Heil!,” a phrase used by Nazi-party members at rallies. It means “hail victory” and is so closely associated with Adolf Hitler that its use is banned in Germany.
He deleted the tweet, but other users captured it before he did so.