CNN fires pro-Trump commentator Jeffrey Lord for tweeting a Nazi salute

CNN has fired contributor Jeffrey Lord after the commentator tweeted a Nazi salute, the cable news channel said on Thursday.

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

Lord, an outspoken supporter of President Donald Trump, made the remarks during an online spat with Angelo Carusone, the president of the liberal media watchdog Media Matters.

Lord had written a column for the conservative blog the American Spectator accusing Carusone and Media Matters of being “fascists” because of the organization’s efforts to get advertisers off Fox News program hosted by Sean Hannity.

Carusone tweeted that his last name was misspelled in the headline, to which Lord responded: “Sieg Heil!”

In a series of tweets following the use of the Nazi salute, Lord said he was “mocking Nazis and fascists” with the Nazi salute. He also repeatedly accused his critics of being fascists, or of supporting fascists.

Following the tweets, a number of people began calling for Lord to issue an apology or for CNN to drop the commentator altogether.

Lord’s time at CNN has been marked with controversy since he became one of the more outspoken pro-Trump voices on the network. In May, CNN host Anderson Cooper said to Lord that Lord would defend Trump “if he took a dump on his desk.” (Cooper later apologized for the remark.)

CNN has cut ties with several other on-air personalities this year following controversial remarks. The channel in June cut ties with Reza Aslan, a religious scholar and host of the show “Believer with Reza Aslan,” a week after Aslan called Trump a “piece of shit” in a now-deleted tweet.

CNN also fired Kathy Griffin, the channel’s New Years Eve program co-host, after Griffin appeared in a series of photos in which she held up a bloodied, severed head that resembled Trump’s.