CNN has cut ties with pro-Trump commentator Jeffrey Lord after the TV pundit tweeted out the “Sieg Heil” Nazi salute on Thursday.
“Nazi salutes are indefensible,” the network said in statement. “Jeffrey Lord is no longer with the network.”
Lord has not responded to TheWrap’s request for comment but he did tweet the cryptic “LOL!” shortly after reports of his dismissal went public.
As TheWrap previously reported, Lord tweeted “Sieg Heil” during a Twitter argument with Media Matters president Angelo Carusone.
The exchange came after Lord tweeted a story he had just posted on American Spectator deriding the progressive watchdog group as modern-day “fascists” and calling its leadership “anti-free speech bigots who, in typical fascist style, make it their mission to shut down speech they don’t like.”
Carusone responded: “Your headline has a mistake in it. Why do you expect anyone to take you seriously when you don’t take yourself seriously.”
Lord’s two-word response to the criticism? “Sieg Heil.”
“It’s completely insane,” Carusone told TheWrap. “I’m just as bewildered as everyone else. It’s completely bizarre.”
“If your entire criticism is that everyone is a fascist or a Nazi then you probably shouldn’t use the Nazi victory salute in order to make your argument,” Carusone said.
The online backlash was swift, with many demanding Lord take down the offending message.
“Just in case you decide to delete your tweet later, Nazi-D-bag,” wrote one follower, along with a screen grab of the tweet.
“Why do you oppose mocking Nazis and fascists? Just curious. R U one?” Lord shot back.
“Why would I delete something that mocks the Fascists at Media Matters Fascists?” he told another online commenter.
In April, Lord was criticized after claiming President Donald Trump was “the Martin Luther King of health care.”
Sieg Heil!
— Jeffrey Lord (@realJeffreyLord) August 10, 2017
LOL!
— Jeffrey Lord (@realJeffreyLord) August 10, 2017