CBS 58’s Sam Kuffel is out after criticizing Elon Musk’s arm movement

On By Littum

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A Milwaukee TV weather forecaster has been dropped from her station a day after she criticized Elon Musk on social media for his outstretched arms, which many have compared to a Nazi salute.

Staff at WDJT-TV (Channel 58) were alerted via email Wednesday that meteorologist Sam Kuffel had left the station. Her biography and photo had been removed from Channel 58’s website on Wednesday afternoon.

“Meteorologist Sam Kuffel is no longer employed at CBS58,” said the staff memo from news director Jessie Garcia, obtained by the Journal Sentinel. “A search for a replacement is underway.”

A spokeswoman for Weigel Broadcasting Co. confirmed by email late Wednesday that Kuffel was no longer with Channel 58. But the spokeswoman said she could not comment further because this was a personnel matter.

On Tuesday, conservative radio host Dan O’Donnell slammed Kuffel for her two Instagram posts, accusing her of “spreading the lie that Elon Musk gave a Nazi salute” during the presidential inauguration. He labeled her post “vulgar”.

Kuffel, 31, could not be reached by email, text or phone Wednesday.

According to her LinkedIn pageKuffel 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 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 anti-Semitism and human rights watchdog, called it an “awkward gesture” and urged caution in jumping to conclusions. Other extremism monitors and experts pointed out that it was unclear what Musk was trying to convey to the crowd of Trump supporters by sticking out his arm.

Musk, Tesla’s CEO and the world’s richest man, has only fanned the flames of suspicion by not explicitly denying those claims in a dozen posts since, though he played down the criticism and lashed out at people who suggested he was making a Sieg Heil- greeting.

In a post on his personal Instagram account, Kuffel posted a photo of Musk on the podium and said, “Dude Nazi saluted twice. TWICE. During the inauguration.”

She added: “You (expletive) with this and this man, I don’t (expletive) with you. Period.”

Kuffel then posted a GIF from “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” on Instagram along with the caption, “Screw that old (expletive). He’s a Nazi.”

By Tuesday, she had made her Instagram account private.

On the same day, Kuffel was cited in a CNN story on the loss of local weather reports on television stations around the country.

“Local meteorologists are essential to local news,” Kuffel wrote on X about widespread layoffs of meteorologists around the country. “Communities will suffer from large, localized weather events because of this decision.”

Contact Daniel Bice at (414) 313-6684 or [email protected]. Follow him on X at @DanielBice or on Facebook at fb.me/daniel.bice.