October 12, 2017
President Donald Trump sang canned CNN pundit Jeffrey Lord's praises during a speech on tax reform in Pennsylvania on Wednesday.
Trump called Lord, who was fired from the network in August for tweeting a reference to a Nazi victory salute, a "good man" and thanked him for making it out to the event, The Hill reported.
“Hi Jeffrey," Trump said during the event in Harrisburg. "The great Jeffrey Lord. He was on fake news CNN for a long time. He was one of my few sources of truth. Thank you, Jeffrey, for being here."
Lord, a Pennsylvania political strategist and graduate of Franklin & Marshall College, tweeted the phrase "Sieg Heil" during an exchange with liberal activist and president of Media Matters Angelo Carusone in early August. Lord later clarified that he posted the phrase in a "mocking" attempt.
Upon confirming his dismissal with The New York Times, CNN called Nazi salutes "indefensible."
Lord told The Hill in August that he had "no hesitation" about tweeting the phrase.
"If I had known this was going to end up like this, I would have done it again," he told the publication.
It's not the first time that Trump has given a nod to Lord in a speech. Shortly after his departure, the president backed him during an event where he addressed the violent events that unfolded in Charlottesville, Virginia, following a white supremacist rally over the summer.
“They fired Jeffrey Lord," Trump said." Poor Jeffrey. I guess he was getting a little bit fed up and was probably fighting back too hard and they said, 'We gotta get out of here.'"
Trump spoke to an invitation-only crowd of about 1,000 on Wednesday. The president filmed an exclusive interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity shortly before the event; the interview aired on the network at 9 p.m.
