Kris Long, an anchor for the CBS affiliate in Palm Springs, California resigned from the station on Friday, a few weeks after posting a lengthy Facebook post defending Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh, an employee at the news channel told TheWrap.
In a written statement on Oct. 5 obtained by USA Today, Gulf California Broadcast Company General Manager Jerry Upham wrote that the Palm Springs-based CBS affiliate had accepted Long’s resignation “effective immediately.”
“Kris Long has been an integral part of this company’s news organization and we’d like to thank him for his many years of service,” wrote Upham.
Long published a lengthy Facebook post on Sept. 17, which you can see here, via USA Today, where after saying he was a supporter of the #MeToo movement, he then appeared to defend Kavanaugh’s actions as a 17 year old. “You are beyond dreaming of you think 17 year old boys are not going to misbehave from time to time as they begin to attempt relationships with the opposite sex. That is just the way we animals are made!” He then described the actions that Kavanaugh was accused of by Christine Blasey Ford as “some lesser miscreant behavior from four decades ago.”
Long had not appeared on air since the Sept. 17 newscast. He deleted his post the next day, writing: “The previous post to this page has been deleted. This is a sensitive and controversial subject and I apologize for any offense that this has caused.”
On Friday, Sen. Susan Collins said toward the end of a lengthy speech on the Senate floor that she would vote to confirm Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court.
The decision from Collins all but assures that Kavanaugh will be confirmed to the United States Supreme Court by what is expected to be a razor thin 51-49 margin. The vote is expected to run almost totally along party lines, with West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin defecting from his party by also saying he would vote “yes” on Kavanaugh while Republican Lisa Murkowski split from her side as well by announcing she would vote “no.”
Kavanaugh has denied every accusations leveled against him, testifying under oath last month that he had never committed any act of sexual misconduct toward anyone.
