Steve Cortes says he was ousted as a CNN contributor because he defended Trump

Steve Cortes said he was forced out as a CNN contributor because he refuted accusations of racism against President Donald Trump over his comments about a political rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Cortes was a frequent defender of the president on the network, and he is a former member of Trump's Hispanic advisory council.

He said that CNN got rid of him because of a PragerU video where he defended the president against claims that he called white nationalists at the 2017 Charlottesville rally "very fine people."

Cortes explained his claims Monday to Laura Ingraham on her Fox News show.

"I really detailed why that is a lie, the Charlottesville lie, the 'fine people' hoax, the president never called neo-Nazis fine people," he said.

"And for committing what was, I guess, the unpardonable sin, at least in the eyes of CNN, for declawing that deception that they continued to push, they put me on the bench," he explained. "They took me off the air after I did a PragerU video that got 6 million hits detailing exactly why the Charlottesville myth was a deception."

Critics of the president say that he was referring to neo-Nazis at the rally when he said there were "very fine" people on both sides, but supporters of the president say he was referring to protesters opposing the removal of confederate monuments.

Ingraham asked Cortes if CNN specifically cited the video in the notification of his dismissal, and he said that they did but not in writing.

"Not in writing, no, but they did tell me it was directly because of the Charlottesville video. The president retweeted it, the PragerU video that I did, the president retweeted it.

"It got as I said, many millions of views, and I think we did strong work at improving the truth of the matter," Cortez concluded.

Here's the video that got Cortes dismissed:

www.youtube.com

[H/T: Washington Examiner.]