A Milwaukee weather reporter was fired from the local TV station a day after he criticized Elon Musk on social media for his hand gesture that many folks have likened to a Nazi salute.
After President Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th US President, the Tesla founder who is set to head the Department of Government Efficiency to hold government spending accountable, spoke to the crowd of supporters who were gathered at the Capital One Arena, where he slapped his chest with his palm, grunted, and raised his hand in a gesture that some online have compared to a Nazi salute.
WDJT-TV (Channel 58) staff members were informed on Wednesday that meteorologist Sam Kuffel left the station. The station has also removed her picture and biography from the website by Wednesday afternoon.
In the staff memo, news director Jessie Garcia said, “Meteorologist Sam Kuffel is no longer employed at CBS58,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
“A search for a replacement is underway,” Garcia added in the memo.
Kuffel made two Instagram posts on Tuesday about Musk’s gesture. In one of the posts on her account, she posted a picture and said, “Dude Nazi saluted twice. TWICE. During the inauguration.”
“You (expletive) with this and this man, I don’t (expletive) with you. Full stop,” she said.
In another, she posted a GIF from “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”, saying, “Screw that old (expletive). He’s a Nazi.”
Conservative radio host Dan O’Donnell criticized Kuffel for her “vulgar” Instagram posts on Tuesday, accusing her of “spreading the lie that Elon Musk was giving a Nazi salute” after Trump’s Inauguration.
The popular weather forecaster was at the station for more than five years. She worked at WAOW-TV in Wausau after graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2016.
Following an online frenzy over Musk’s gesture and his intent, ADL, an organization started in 1913 “to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all,” as per their website, defended his actions.
In a statement released on X, ADL said, “This is a delicate moment. It’s a new day and yet so many are on edge. Our politics are inflamed, and social media only adds to the anxiety.”
Elon Musk seemingly “made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute, but again, we appreciate that people are on edge,” their statement said.
They asked “all sides” to give each other ” a bit of grace, perhaps even the benefit of the doubt, and take a breath.”
“This is a new beginning. Let’s hope for healing and work toward unity in the months and years ahead,” they added.
Amid all the backlash, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took to X to defend Musk.
He said that Musk “is being falsely smeared.”
“Elon is a great friend of Israel. He visited Israel after the October 7 massacre in which Hamas terrorists committed the worst atrocity against the Jewish people since the Holocaust. He 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. I thank him for this,” Netanyahu said.
