CNN Fires Commentator for Tweeting 'Sieg Heil'

CNN has decided to cut its ties with Jeffrey Lord, one of its only pro-President Trump commentators. The last straw came when Lord tweeted the Nazi salute "Sieg Heil!" during an exchange with Media Matters chief Angelo Carusone, Politico reports. "Nazi salutes are indefensible," CNN said in a statement. "Jeffrey Lord is no longer with the network." Lord, however, tells Vox that he was mocking Nazis and Carusone's alleged "Mussolini-style tactics" to suppress free speech. "I was saying they were fascists modeling themselves after Nazis," he says.

Lord says he disagrees with the decision, but he wants to thank the network for giving him a platform over the last two years. "I want to emphasize that I love CNN," he says. "And I have a lot of respect for Jeff Zucker and all the people there." This was the latest in a long line of controversies for Lord at CNN, Business Insider notes. During primary season, he clashed with fellow commentator Van Jones after calling the KKK a "leftist" organization. In other appearances, he called Trump the "Martin Luther King" of health care, blamed Ariana Grande for the Manchester terror attack, and told a black panelist he should apologize for slavery. (Anderson Cooper told Lord he would defend Trump even if he "took a dump on his desk.")