Steve Bannon, the white supremacist who headed Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, is reportedly now Trump’s top choice for White House Chief of Staff.
Which is terrifying.
Bannon Is A Man With A ‘Very Low Moral Compass’
When Steve Bannon took the helm at Breitbart, he was happy to turn the website into “the platform for the alt-right.” In case you’re unfamiliar with the term, it was coined by Richard Spencer, who is the president of the white nationalist National Policy Institute. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center:
“Spencer advocates for an Aryan homeland for the supposedly dispossessed white race and calls for ‘peaceful ethnic cleansing’ to halt the ‘deconstruction’ of European culture.”
So that’s the alt-right, in a nutshell — neo-Nazis, white nationalists, white supremacists. You get the idea. And Bannon was happy to give them a home at Breitbart.
Kurt Badella worked at Breitbart under Bannon’s leadership for two years. He left in disgust after a Breitbart reporter, Michelle Fields, accused Trump’s then-campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, of assaulting her. Badella felt the organization did not do enough to support Fields.
Badella told ABC News about the daily editorial calls he would have with Steve Bannon:
“If anyone sat there and listened to that call, you’d think that you were attending a white supremacist rally … This is someone who has a very low moral compass …”
So let’s come back to the present. Trump is headed for the White House, and it looks like he might appoint Bannon his Chief of Staff.
Navarro: ‘Can I Set My Hair On Fire?’
Ana Navarro appeared on CNN’s The Lead on Thursday, and Jake Tapper mentioned that Trump is reportedly considering Bannon for that top job. Navarro’s response?
“Do you have a match somewhere so that I can set my hair on fire?”
My thoughts exactly, Ms. Navarro.
Tapper did mention that there are others in Trump’s inner circle who are not too keen on the idea. Considering the fact that the White House Chief of Staff is a job often considered the “power behind the throne” and that Bannon once referred to the Republican leadership as “c**ts,” it’s not all that shocking that the inner circle might not be too keen on this idea. Of course, the Chief of Staff is not a job that must be confirmed, so Trump can put anyone he damn well pleases into the job.
Symone Sanders, former national press secretary to Bernie Sanders, who also appeared on the panel, had this to say:
“To give Steve Bannon… Breitbart did identify some of the economic anxiety, but it also identified some of the white supremacy, some of the racism, xenophobia, the sexism … To put that as the chief of people’s house? I just can’t.”
None of us can.
Watch the exchange here:
Featured Image via screenshot from YouTube video
