A meteorologist with a CBS affiliate in Milwaukee has parted ways 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 HuffPost on Wednesday that meteorologist Sam Kuffel is “no longer with the station” but that it “cannot comment further on personnel issues.” The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel was the first to report on Kuffel’s departure, noting that a memo about it went out to staff a day after she got heat from a conservative media personality for criticizing Musk’s shocking gesture.
“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,” conservative radio host Dan O’Donnell shared Tuesday on X, the Musk-owned social media platform formerly called Twitter, alongside screenshots from what appear to be posts from Kuffel’s Instagram.
One of the screenshots was an image of Musk right before he made the gesture, accompanied by the following text: “Dude Nazi saluted twice. TWICE. During the inauguration. You fuck with this and this man, I don’t fuck with you. Full stop.”
The Instagram account is private, but a publicly viewable bio for it said it was “never a public account.”
Kuffel did not immediately respond to an email asking her to share the circumstances around her departure from CBS 58.
O’Donnell was among the chorus of conservatives who shot down critics who pointed out that Musk’s gesture strongly resembled a Nazi salute used regularly today by white nationalist groups. Trump and Musk’s supporters have said he was simply sending his heart out to the crowd.
Protect The Free Press
Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages.
Regardless of what he meant with the salute, it’s been embraced by right-wing figures and white nationalist groups.
“Did Elon Musk just Heil Hitler at the Trump Inauguration Rally,” far-right commentator Evan Kilgore wrote on X, adding in another post, “We are so back.”
A chapter of the white nationalist organization White Lives Matter also responded favorably to the moment, posting on the messaging app Telegram, “Thanks for (sometimes) hearing us, Elon. The White Flame will rise again.”