A meteorologist with a CBS affiliate in Milwaukee has parted methods with the station days after she criticized Elon Musk’s controversial hand gesture at President Donald Trump’s inauguration as a Nazi salute.
A CBS 58 spokesperson confirmed with JHB on Wednesday that meteorologist Sam Kuffel is “not with the station” however that it “can not remark additional on personnel points.” The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel was the primary to report on Kuffel’s departure, noting {that a} memo about it went out to employees a day after she obtained warmth from a conservative media persona for criticizing Musk’s surprising gesture.
“Sam Kuffel makes a pair of vulgar Instagram posts whereas spreading the lie that Elon Musk was giving a Nazi salute throughout yesterday’s Presidential Inauguration,” conservative radio host Dan O’Donnell shared Tuesday on X, the Musk-owned social media platform previously known as Twitter, alongside screenshots from what seem like posts from Kuffel’s Instagram.
One of many screenshots was a picture of Musk proper earlier than he made the gesture, accompanied by the next textual content: “Dude Nazi saluted twice. TWICE. In the course of the inauguration. You fuck with this and this man, I don’t fuck with you. Full cease.”
The Instagram account is personal, however a publicly viewable bio for it mentioned it was “by no means a public account.”
Kuffel didn’t instantly reply to an e mail asking her to share the circumstances round her departure from CBS 58.
O’Donnell was among the many refrain of conservatives who shot down critics who identified that Musk’s gesture strongly resembled a Nazi salute used frequently right now by white nationalist teams. Trump and Musk’s supporters have mentioned he was merely sending his coronary heart out to the gang.
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No matter what he meant with the salute, it’s been embraced by right-wing figures and white nationalist teams.
“Did Elon Musk simply Heil Hitler on the Trump Inauguration Rally,” far-right commentator Evan Kilgore wrote on X, including in one other put up, “We’re so again.”
A chapter of the white nationalist group White Lives Matter additionally responded favorably to the second, posting on the messaging app Telegram, “Thanks for (generally) listening to us, Elon. The White Flame will rise once more.”