The Hill reports:
Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) in an interview late Monday said he “misspoke” during recent remarks dismissing the influence of Native American culture on the U.S. Santorum, a senior political commentator at CNN, appeared on the network to discuss the comments, which sparked criticism late last month. “This seemed like you were trying to erase diversity,” host Cuomo said, “in the interest of some White Christian right.”
“Just to be clear, what I was not saying was that Native American culture–I misspoke,” Santorum said. “They have a huge impact, particularly in the west and many other areas of the country, where they have a huge impact on American culture. I was talking about — and I misspoke in this respect — I was talking about the founding and the principles embodied in the founding,” Santorum added. “The way we treated Native Americans was horrific.”
Read the full article. Santorum had said that America was “birthed from nothing” and that “there was nothing here.” As you can below, CNN host Don Lemon was not having it and raged about Santorum in a followup segment.
Santorum on comments dismissing influence of Native American culture: “I misspoke” https://t.co/ElXyrUhntQ pic.twitter.com/cHVyLadMtp
— The Hill (@thehill) May 4, 2021
“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
>> @DonLemon‘s reaction to Rick Santorum’s comments: “I apologize to the viewers who were insulted by this. I was sitting in my office, furious, because he’s done it so many times. So many times…” pic.twitter.com/UD00zTalI7
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) May 4, 2021