https://twitter.com/lachlan/status/1400110250028642304

CNN Drops Rick Santorum After Racist Comments About Native Americans

POLITICS 05/22/2021 02:07 pm ET

By Jennifer Bendery

The former GOP senator lost his contract with the network after claiming there was “nothing” in America before white colonizers arrived.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/rick-santorum-cnn-native-americans_n_60a92fa6e4b0313547978140

Santorum, a former Republican senator and two-time failed GOP presidential candidate, sparked outrage last month after claiming there was “nothing” in America before white colonizers arrived and that Native people haven’t contributed much to American culture, anyway.

“We birthed a nation from nothing. I mean, there was nothing here,” Santorum told students during remarks at a Young America’s Foundation event. “I mean, yes, we have Native Americans, but candidly, there isn’t much Native American culture in American culture.”

Prominent Indigenous-led organizations including the National Congress of American Indians and Illuminative have spent weeks demanding that CNN fire Santorum over his remarks. National civil rights groups have also called for his firing. CNN has stayed silent on the matter.

But on Saturday, a CNN senior executive told HuffPost that the network quietly ended its contract with Santorum this week. This executive, who requested anonymity to speak openly, said the decision to cut ties with Santorum came after he went on one of the network’s shows, “Cuomo Prime Time,” to explain himself shortly after he made his racist comments. He blew it, said this executive, and after that, nobody at the network wanted to keep him around.

Trump is sliding toward online irrelevance. His new blog isn’t helping.

The former president’s aides said his new online presence would ‘redefine the game.’ But his heavily promoted blog is seeing few visitors.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/05/21/trump-online-traffic-plunge/

On the Internet, former president Donald Trump is sliding toward something he’s fought his entire life: Irrelevance.

Online talk about him has plunged to a five-year low. He’s banned or ignored on pretty much every major social media venue. And in the last week, Trump’s website — including his new blog, fundraising page and online storefront ­— attracted fewer estimated visitors than the pet-adoption service Petfinder and the recipe site Delish.

Trump is still by far the Republican Party’s biggest star, and conservative lawmakers and provocateurs are now loudly sparring over the importance of loyalty to him ahead of the 2022 midterm elections or a potential second Trump presidential run. Many of the party’s potential 2024 candidates say they will not run if he does, and many of the party’s luminaries have traveled to Florida to meet with him.

But Trump’s continued influence isn’t translating into a bigger online audience, according to a Washington Post review of data from four online-analytics firms. Social engagement around Trump — a measure of the “likes,” reactions, comments or shares on content about him across Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and Pinterest — has nosedived 95 percent since January, to its lowest level since 2016.

Twitter suspended an account on Thursday that appeared to be circumventing its ban on former President Donald Trump by posting messages he shared on his own website.

The move was more evidence that the social media behemoth will continue to take action to enforce its ban on Trump, which was instituted in his final days in office as he tried to overturn his election defeat.

On Thursday morning, a Twitter accounts with the handle “@DJTDesk” appeared on Twitter. The account’s bio section stated that the handle would be featuring “Posts copied from Save America on behalf of the 45th POTUS; Originally composed via DonaldJTrump/Desk.”

Within hours, the account was suspended.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/twitter-suspends-account-was-posting-trump-statements-n1266540

David Corn
@DavidCornDC

Roger Stone’s pardon doesn’t cover him allegedly cheating Uncle Sam out of $2 million. https://nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/justice-department-sues-trump-ally-roger-stone-alleging-millions-unpaid-n1264372 via @nbcnews

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