‘#ByeFelicia’: CNN Fires Pro-Trump Commentator Jeffrey Lord Over Nazi Reference and the Internet Goes Wild

‘Nazi Salutes Are Indefensible’ CNN Says

People on social media right now are cheering after news broke that CNN has just severed ties with Jeffrey Lord, a pro-Trump commentator employed by the cable news network for several years. He has been accused of defending absolutely everything that Trump has ever done, but it was Lord’s own actions that led the network to finally fire him.

Lord, in a Twitter attack on well-known Media Matters head Angelo Carusone, posted a tweet that read, simply, “Sieg Heil!”

In a post at the far right wing website The American Spectator, Lord attacked Carusone and Media Matters, a liberal media watchdog organization.

“Media Matters Fascists, the anti-free speech bigots who, in typical fascist style, make it their mission to shut down speech they don’t like…” Lord wrote.

That was the mid-way point of a Twitter war that began Wednesday, with this:

It finally ended Thursday afternoon, with this:

Within hours, Lord was terminated over the Nazi reference.

CNN’s Brian Stelter, in an article reporting the news of Lord’s firing, delivered what sounds more like a tribute to the much despised far right wing pundit, and a promise to the right that CNN is not abandoning them. All of which is disturbing. 

An excerpt:

CNN severed ties with Jeffrey Lord on Thursday, hours after he ignited controversy by tweeting the words “Sieg Heil!” at a prominent liberal activist.

“Nazi salutes are indefensible,” a CNN spokesperson said in a statement. “Jeffrey Lord is no longer with the network.”

Lord was not immediately reachable for comment. Earlier in the day, he defended his tweet by saying he was “mocking a fascist.”
Lord, a former Reagan administration staffer, had been one of CNN’s best-known commentators. He was the first explicitly pro-Donald Trump commentator to join the network, back in August 2015, two months after Trump entered the GOP primary race. At the time Lord was a counterweight to CNN’s other conservative commentators, who were all dismissive of Trump’s candidacy.
Other pro-Trump voices joined the network later. CNN now has about a dozen commentators who tend to support the president’s views.

Here’s a stunning tidbit on how Lord got his CNN gig:

Media Matters wasted no time celebrating:

It seems we can all breathe easy:

Meanwhile, here’s how people on social media responded:

Keith Olbermann:

HuffPost Editor in Chief:

Actor Zach Braff:

More:

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