Stephen Bannon, former Breitbart News Chief Executive is one of the true Donald Trump supporters in the incoming Trump administration.
Bannon was an incredibly effective force for the successful Trump campaign as its CEO, which he was appointed to in August. Now he has been named chief strategist and senior counselor by Trump, a top-tier position in the White House.
Bannon will be the conscience of the White House. As an outsider Bannon will serve as a counterweight to Reince Priebus as Chief of Staff, who is now the outgoing Republican National Committee Chairman. He will likely provide advice to Trump that will differ from that given by Washington, D.C. establishment types. It will help keep Trump honest and remind him of the commitments he made to his political base. Nothing wrong with that.
And so, it is no surprise then that the long knives are now out to take Bannon out. Now, there is the unproven charge being pushed by a few media outlets that Bannon is a white supremacist and anti-Semitic. Total nonsense.
This attempt at character assassination of Bannon is no less than an attack on all Trump supporters, who backed Trump’s message on America first, trade and illegal immigration regardless of race. This deplorable attack on a man who did nothing wrong must not stand.
“That’s just folks that are bitter the election’s over,” Jason Miller, Trump campaign spokesman, said to reporters outside Trump Tower on Wednesday. “They didn’t get the result that they wanted.”
Miller said Bannon is of “very high character” and is “someone who’s been a fantastic example of really being inclusive” and “who’s embraced diversity at every step.”
Miller added, “I think he’ll do a great job working with chief of staff Reince Priebus… to implement President-elect Trump’s vision.”
In fact, at a talk to the Vatican from 2014, Bannon actually dismissed anti-Semitic and racist elements in European nationalist movements as “fringe” that “all gets washed out,” according to a transcript released by Buzzfeed: “I’m not an expert in this, but it seems that they have had some aspects that may be anti-Semitic or racial. Some that are fringe organizations. My point is that over time it all gets kind of washed out, right? People understand what pulls them together, and the people on the margins I think get marginalized more and more.”
In the meantime, top Democrat and emeritus law professor at Harvard University Alan Dershowitz defended Bannon in a telephone interview, saying, “I think we have to be very careful before we accuse any particular individual of being an anti-Semite. The evidence certainly suggests that Mr. Bannon has very good relationships with individual Jews. My former researcher, Joel Pollak, is an Orthodox Jew who takes off the Jewish holidays, who is a committed Jew and a committed Zionist, and he has worked closely with him. He has been supportive of Israel.”
Dershowitz added, “I haven’t seen any evidence of personal anti-Semitism on the part of Bannon,” and “it is not legitimate to call somebody an anti-Semite because you might disagree with their policies.”
Of course, there being no evidence has not usually been a problem for media. Just run with the narrative and find some facts later.
“This is no different than the fake protests being organized by George Soros. It’s all theater being produced by the globalist hard left and certain media outlets,” Bill Wilson, a member of Americans for Limited Government’s board of directors commented.
“Having the media in collusion with the left is nothing new, as we recently learned from the election campaign via Wikileaks. They will do anything to undermine the Trump administration,” Wilson added.
In other words, this is just the latest drive-by hit squad attack by the media that hates Trump and hates the people who voted for him, and hates Bannon. If it is necessary to assassinate Stephen Bannon’s character to undermine the incoming Trump administration, then that is the price to be paid. The only thing that’s not news here is that the media has it in for Trump and his supporters.
Robert Romano is the senior editor of Americans for Limited Government.
