Elon Musk’s gesture at inaugural event stirs controversy
Elon Musk’s gesture to Donald Trump supporters at post-inauguration rally stirs controversy.
A Milwaukee TV weather forecaster has been dropped by her station one day after she criticized Elon Musk on social media for his straight-arm gesture that many have likened to a Nazi salute.
Staffers at WDJT-TV (Channel 58) were alerted by email on Wednesday that meteorologist Sam Kuffel had left the station. Her biography and picture had been removed from Channel 58 website by Wednesday afternoon.
“Meteorologist Sam Kuffel is no longer employed at CBS58,” said the staff memo from news director Jessie Garcia that was obtained by the Journal Sentinel. “A search for a replacement is underway.”
A spokeswoman for Weigel Broadcasting Co. confirmed via email late Wednesday that Kuffel was no longer with Channel 58. But the spokeswoman said she couldn’t comment further because this was a personnel issue.
On Tuesday, conservative radio host Dan O’Donnell sharply criticized Kuffel for her two Instagram posts, accusing her of “spreading the lie that Elon Musk was giving a Nazi salute” during the presidential inauguration. He labeled her posts “vulgar.”
Kuffel, 31, could not be reached by email, text or phone on Wednesday.
According to her LinkedIn page, Kuffel joined Channel 58 more than five years ago. She previously worked at WAOW-TV (Channel 9) in Wausau after graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2016.
The popular local weather forecaster was also a regular on the all sports radio station WRNW-FM (97.3).
On Tuesday, she made two Instagram posts about Musk’s gesture during a speech at a President Donald Trump inauguration event on Monday.
The Anti-Defamation League, an antisemitism and human rights watchdog, called it an “awkward gesture” and urged caution in jumping to conclusions. Other extremism monitors and experts pointed out it was unclear what Musk was trying to convey to the crowd of Trump’s supporters by thrusting his arm out.
Musk, the Tesla CEO and world’s richest man, has only fanned the flames of suspicion by not explicitly denying those claims in a dozen posts since, though he did make light of the criticism and lashed out at people suggesting he made a Sieg Heil salute.
In one post on her personal Instagram account, Kuffel posted a picture of Musk at the podium, saying, “Dude Nazi saluted twice. TWICE. During the inauguration.”
She added, “You (expletive) with this and this man, I don’t (expletive) with you. Full stop.”
Kuffel then posted a GIF from “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” on Instagram along with the saying, “Screw that old (expletive). He’s a Nazi.”
By late Tuesday, she had made her Instagram account private.
On the same day, Kuffel was quoted in a CNN story on the loss of local weather forecasters at TV stations around the country.
“Local meteorologists are essential to local news,” Kuffel wrote on X about sweeping layoffs of meteorologists around the country. “Communities will suffer during major, local weather events because of this decision.”
Contact Daniel Bice at (414) 313-6684 or dbice@jrn.com. Follow him on X at @DanielBice or on Facebook at fb.me/daniel.bice.
