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Minnesota NBC Station Fires Weatherman After Reposting Comparison Of Reopen Protesters To Nazis

   DailyWire.com
Protesters call to reopen businesses and beaches as the growing the coronavirus pandemic continues to cripple the economy on May 1, 2020 in Huntington Beach, California.
David McNew/Getty Images

A Minnesota weatherman is out of a job shortly after he reposted a comment from a local rabbi that compared protesters who want the economy to reopen so they can go back to work to Nazis.

Sven Sundgaard was a meteorologist for NBC-affiliate KARE-TV in Minnesota until last week. The station cited “continued violations” of the its “news ethics” policy and others as the reason for the firing, Fox News reported.

“Due to continued violations of KARE11’s news ethics and other policies, we have made the decision to part ways with Sven Sundgaard,” the station posted on Facebook. “We hope you continue to turn to KARE 11 for your news, traffic, weather and more.”

The outlet did not specifically say the Nazi comparison led to Sundgaard’s firing, but the posting came shortly before his firing. KARE president and general manager John Remes told the St. Paul Pioneer Press that he would “have no comment, other than what was publicly posted.”

Sundgaard had reposted an online message attributed to Rabbi Michael Adam Latz, which described lockdown protesters as “white nationalist Nazi sympathizer gun fetishist miscreants,” the Press reported.

Sundgaard’s background, according to the Press:

Sundgaard and his boyfriend, Robert McEachren, have been hosting live online events while working from home where they would talk about various topics, including politics.

Sundgaard interned at KARE in 2002 while he was pursuing his meteorology degree at St. Cloud State University and joined the station in 2006 after a stint at KBJR-TV in Duluth.

A native Minnesotan, he was born in St. Paul and raised in Cottage Grove.

The Star Tribune reported that Sungaard had been previously outspoken on politics, such as in 2015, when he condemned a protest against former President Barack Obama that included a Confederate flag.

“Hate and racism,” Sungaard told the paper at the time. “I had a great-great-grandfather who fought in the Civil War in the 38th Iowa Infantry. Injured because those, what’s the word we should use, morons and racists in the South wanted to preserve their way of life. They lost.”

“Actually what I’ve likened it to, and I don’t think it’s an exaggeration, let’s pretend that Germany were a state in the U.S. and they still wanted to fly the Nazi flag. Get real,” he added.

As The Daily Wire’s Amanda Prestigiacomo reported, protests have broken out across the country, and while many pundits have characterized protesters as people who simply want to go to the beach or get a haircut, the protests are actually to get the economy to reopen so people who have lost their jobs due to the coronavirus lockdown can go back to work and start earning a living again. More than 30 million people have filed for unemployment since the shutdowns began.

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