Santorum says comments about Native Americans and the nation's founding were taken out of context

CNN ended its relationship with former Sen. Rick Santorum last month after comments he made in April at a Young America's Foundation event had come under scrutiny, but Santorum said during an interview on The Water Cooler with David Brody that his comments were not controversial and had been taken out of context.

"We birthed a nation from nothing," Santorum said during the event in April. He then mentioned Native Americans but said that "there isn't much Native American culture in American culture."

"I did not say controversial things about Native Americans. People took what I said out of context and made them into a controversy," Santorum said during an interview on Tuesday's episode of The Water Cooler. He said that he "talked about the founding of our country, and while Native Americans were here I said, they did not participate in the founding of our country, basically what I said. And that's pretty much true," he remarked.

The former lawmaker, who had served as a senior political commentator with CNN, said that people had been working to get him kicked off of the network for years.