American Airlines has disassociated itself with public relations and political consultant and Trump supporter Harlan Hill after he made a disparaging remark about Sen. Kamala Harris in a tweet Wednesday night.
According to CNBC, American Airlines heads a list of major companies who disavowed Hill for addressing the senator as a derogatory term the week of her historic vice presidential debate.
“Kamala Harris comes off as such an insufferable lying b***h. Sorry, it’s just true,” Hill tweeted.
Kamala Harris comes off as such an insufferable lying bitch. Sorry, it’s just true.
— HARLAN Z. HILL ???????? (@Harlan) October 8, 2020
He would later defend his comment in an exchange with The Daily Beast, saying that Harris was disrespectful to the Trump administration and deserved worse for lying to Americans.
“Kamala Harris was extraordinarily disrespectful to the vice president last night, lied to the American people repeatedly on The Biden/Harris platform, and was just generally unlikable and smug,” Hill said in a text message to the publication. “I tweeted what I tweeted and I’d tweet it again.”
Once his tweet went viral, AT&T and American Airlines distanced themselves from Hill and prohibited him from accessing their brand likeness. He apparently has AT&T's logo on his professional website, suggesting that he's previously worked with them. But the phone company said it has no record of doing business or collaborating with Hill.
“We have found no record of this person working for us, and he certainly never will in the future. We have contacted him and demanded he remove our name and logo from his website,” an AT&T spokesman told CNBC.
When Steve Schmidt, a co-founder of the Lincoln Project, retweeted Hill’s post and tagged American Airlines, another brand Hill listed on his website.
“You are right,” the airline tweeted. “We won’t tolerate it. We just told Mr. Hill to stop using our name & logo. He doesn’t represent us & never will.”
You are right. We won’t tolerate it. We just told Mr. Hill to stop using our name & logo. He doesn’t represent us & never will.
— americanair (@AmericanAir) October 8, 2020
Other groups Hill claims to have worked with in the past have also come out against him
The nonprofit Child Justice, which provides pro bono legal services to protect children "lost in the system" after exposure to family violence, said it would consider asking Hill to remove its name from his brand website given the severity of his comments against Harris and the fact he did subpar website development work with them.
“It was kind of eh. Nothing horrible. Nothing too great. I don’t think he had any particular interest or sympathy with our cause,” executive director Eileen King said.
According to The Daily Beast, Hill also will no longer make regular appearances on Fox News either. He has made at least 47 guest spots on Fox News or Fox Business shows since late 2018.
“We have no intention of booking him as a guest on any of our platforms,” a Fox News Media representative said in a statement to the digital platform.
On his personal website, Hill, a once proud Bernie Sanders supporter in 2016, listed MSNBC and CNN as outlets on which he’s appeared. But there appears to be little evidence to validate his claim, The Daily Beast reports.
A CNN spokesperson said that Hill has not been on the channel’s broadcasted programs since Oct. 2016. In a text to The Daily Beast, an MSNBC wrote there was no recollection of him appearing on their network.
