Sam Kuffel, a weather reporter for CBS, was fired a day after she posted two items on her Instagram page condemning Elon Musk’s ‘Nazi salute’, which Elon Musk said was not a Nazi salute. “Dude Nazi saluted twice. TWICE. During the inauguration,” Kuffel wrote on Instagram. “You f**k with this and this man, I don’t f**k with you. Full stop,” Kuffel added and then posted a GIF from ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ and wrote: “Screw that old b**ch. He’s a Nazi.”
CBS 58 news director Jessie Garcia sent a memo to the staff, as reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, informing them that Sam Kuffel is no longer employed at the channel. “Meteorologist Sam Kuffel is no longer employed at CBS58,” the memo said. “A search for a replacement is underway.”
Kuffel’s post critical of Musk was spotted on Tuesday by Dan O’Donnell, a conservative radio host, who wrote on X: “CBS 58 meteorologist Sam Kuffel makes a pair of vulgar Instagram posts while spreading the lie that Elon Musk was giving a Nazi salute during yesterday’s Presidential Inauguration.” O’Donnell added that Musk said “my heart goes out to you” when he made his gesture.
Kuffel’s profile has been removed from the news station’s website. According to her LinkedIn account, Kuffel worked at CBS 58 since December 2019.
A major controversy broke out after Elon Musk’s gesture at the inauguration event was compared to a Nazi salute. “Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired,” Elon Musk said reacting to the controversy. His mother Maye Musk also reacted to the row and posted photos of other leaders including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris doing the same gesture and questioned whether all these were considered Nazi salute.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended Elon Musk’s gesture and said he was falsely smeared He said Musk visited Israel after it was attacked by the militant group Hamas over a year ago and has “since repeatedly and forcefully supported Israel’s right to defend itself against genocidal terrorists and regimes who seek to annihilate the one and only Jewish state.”
Musk thanked Netanyahu and then posted a series of puns using the names of Joseph Goebbels and Hermann Göring.
