CNN senior political commentator Rick Santorum claimed that Christian settlers from Europe had to build America “from nothing,” adding that “there was nothing here” and “there isn’t much Native American culture in American culture.”
Speaking at the right-wing student organization Young America’s Foundation’s Standing Up For Faith & Freedom conference last week, Santorum—a former Pennsylvania senator and GOP presidential candidate—insisted that America was built on a blank-slate continent.
In doing so, he focused his attention solely on white European Christians who settled in the “New World” in the 17th century while ignoring the fact that there was an indigenous population that had been in America for centuries beforehand.
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CNN did not respond to a request for comment on this story. An outside spokesperson for Santorum, however, released the following statement from the ex-senator: “I had no intention of minimizing or in any way devaluing Native American culture.”
“And so they came here, mostly from Europe, and they set up a country that was based on Judeo-Christian principles—when I say Judeo-Christian, the Mosaic laws, 10 Commandments, and the teachings of Jesus Christ, the morals and teachings of Jesus Christ,” Santorum declared. “That’s what our founding documents are based upon. It’s in our DNA.”
Claiming other countries’ cultures have “changed over time” and “evolved,” but “not us,” the ex-senator asserted that “we came here and created a blank slate.”
“We birthed a nation from nothing. I mean, there was nothing here,” Santorum added, before finally acknowledging the existence of Native American civilization.
“I mean, yes we have Native Americans but candidly there isn't much Native American culture in American culture,” he exclaimed. “It was born of the people who came here pursuing religious liberty to practice their faith, to live as they ought to live, and have the freedom to do so.”
Santorum’s remarks sparked backlash and condemnation online after a video clip went viral Monday on social media, with critics largely blasting the conservative pundit for whitewashing the genocide of Native Americans and dismissing their impact upon American culture.
“Rick Santorum straight up handwaves the genocide of indigenous people,” HuffPost senior front page editor Phillip Lewis tweeted on Monday.
“Native & Indigenous nations lived, governed, and thrived here before their land was stolen and they were murdered in a mass genocide, you ignorant white supremacist,” wrote Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI), blasting the former lawmaker on Twitter.
Other critics noted how Native Americans are largely responsible for first cultivating many of the staple crops—especially corn—upon which American agribusinesses now rely. And others pointed out how scholars have previously noted how Adolf Hitler drew inspiration from this same exact “untouched wilderness” myth.
In a statement first given to HuffPost, National Congress of American Indians President Fawn Sharp called on CNN to fire Santorum, adding that he is an “unhinged and embarrassing racist who disgraces" the network.
Crystal Echo Hawk, the executive director of Native American awareness group IllumiNative, said the network should can the former senator as well and do more to “include Indigenous and diverse voices in its programming.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, meanwhile, also issued a statement urging CNN to get rid of Santorum, claiming the conservative commentator “attempted to whitewash the European genocide of this continent’s indigenous population.”
