Stephen Bannon, former head of the right-wing Breitbart News website has been picked to be President-elect Donald Trump’s “chief strategist and senior counsellor.”
News of Bannon’s appointment in the Oval Office attracted a lot of flak, especially because under Bannon’s leadership, Breitbart was tied to the “alt-right”, a loose online confederation of neo-Nazis, white supremacists and anti-Semitics.
The Breitbart website presented a number of conspiracy theories about Clinton as well as Republicans deemed to be lacking in conservative bonafides.
Several experts and political leaders expressed shock at Trump’s decision, while at the same time, Bannon got praises from ring wing and far-right wing supporters.
NBC News quoted top contender to be next chair of Democratic National Committee, Rep Keith Ellison (D-MN), as saying :
Mr Bannon is adored by white supremacists, white nationalists, anti-Semites, neo-Nazis, and the KKK. It’s not hard to see why. If the President-elect is serious about rejecting bigotry, hatred, and violence from his supporters, he must rescind Stephen Bannon’s appointment. This man shouldn’t be allowed to visit the White House — let alone run it.
John Weaver, a top strategist for Ohio Governor John Kasich called Bannon a fascist.
NBC News quoted ADL president Jonathan Greenblatt criticising Bannon’s appointment.
It is a sad day when a man who presided over the premier website of the ‘alt-right’ — a loose-knit group of white nationalists and unabashed anti-Semites and racists — is slated to be a senior staff member in the ‘people’s house.
Marion Le Pen, who is the grand daughter of Marie le Pen, founder of France’s far-right National Front party, however welcomed the idea of working with Bannon.
Breitbart featured anti-women, Islamphobic materials regularly on their website. There was also a dedicated tag called “black crimes” and when a white supremacist killed nine African-Americans at a church in South Carolina in 2015, an article titled “Hoist it high and proud: The Confederate flag proclaims a glorious heritage" was published, praising the act.
Bannon’s ex wife had accused him of domestic violence in 1996 and later dropped the charges claiming she was threatened. She also alleged that Bannon made anti-semitic comments during their marraige and didn’t want to send their children to a school with Jewish children. Bannon denied all those accusations.
Bannon’s former assistant from Beitbart brushed aside all accusations of Bannon harbouring anti-semitic sentiments and called Bannon a “friend of the Jewish people, and a defender of Israel”.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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