Weatherman Fired for Sharing Post Calling Anti-Lockdown Protesters ‘Nazi Sympathizers’

An NBC affiliate station in Minnesota has fired its weatherman this month, citing multiple breaches of the station’s “news ethics” and other policies.

KARE-TV did not specify why the meteorologist, Sven Sundgaard, was let go, but he recently drew reaction online when he reposted a local rabbi’s message on Facebook regarding crowds protesting coronavirus stay-at-home orders.

The post, attributed to Rabbi Michael Adam Latz, called groups protesting against lockdown measures “white nationalist Nazi sympathizer gun fetishist miscreants,” the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported.

Within hours of KARE-TV confirming Sundgaard’s firing in a Facebook post, more than 6,000 viewers responded in the comments, with some commending the network’s decision while others have decided to “part ways” with the station.

Republican Rep. Jason Lewis criticized the meteorologist’s forecast in a tweet on Thursday as “mostly sunny with a chance of idiocy”:

Today’s forecast: mostly sunny w/ a chance of idiocy.

First ‘sports reporter’ @KFANRosen attacks the right to peaceably assemble.

Now ‘weatherman’ @svensundgaard does this. #Covid_19 models are about as accurate as his forecasts.@kare11 should fire him!https://t.co/awo2Wiesfo

— Jason Lewis (@LewisForMN) April 30, 2020

KARE president and general manager John Remes did not comment, while Sundgaard did not immediately respond to the Pioneer Press’s request.

The Star Tribune reported that Sundgaard had long been outspoken about politics, noting a time in 2015 when he spoke out against a group of people who unfurled a Confederate flag during a public appearance by then-President Barack Obama.

“Hate and racism,” Sundgaard said during an interview with the Tribune. “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 said.

Sundgaard also declined to speak with the Tribune about his firing.