The appointment of Steve Bannon as White House chief strategist isn't exactly a surprise.
SEE ALSO:Trump’s cozy relationship with Breitbart gets even cozier with big hireBack in August, president-elect Donald Trump hired Bannon from ultra-conservative news site Breitbart, which Bannon ran from March 2012 to August 2016, to become Trump's campaign's CEO.
Bannon, whose views align with those of white nationalists, was once labeled "the most dangerous political operative in America" by Bloomberg News.
Under Bannon's control, Breitbart became a pro-Trump, anti-immigration and anti-Muslim platform, and regularly saw criticism for the site's ties to "alt-right" political corridors.
A number of critics have denounced Bannon as a racist and a white supremacist.
The Anti-Defamation League's Jonathan Greenblat noted of Bannon: "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.'"
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After Bannon's promotion was announced, the Southern Poverty Law Center tweeted several controversial stories written by Breitbartunder Bannon's lead:
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“Stephen Bannon was the main driver behind Breitbart becoming a white ethno-nationalist propaganda mill,” the group wrote in a statement. “Trump should rescind this hire. In his victory speech, Trump said he intended to be president for 'all Americans.' Bannon should go.”
Evan McMullin, a former CIA operations officer and independent presidential candidate, linked the appointment to Donald Trump's words in the CBS' 60 Minutesinterview.
"Saying "stop it" to racist attacks means little when you name white supremacist darling Steve Bannon chief strategist in the very same day," he tweeted.
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Same feelings were expressed by John Weaver, who advised Ohio Gov. John Kasich's 2016 presidential campaign:
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Media outlets such as the Huffington Post and NBC News were quite blunt in calling Bannon out as a white nationalist:
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Yet others—like CBS' 60 Minutes, The New York Times andBBC News—came under fire on social media for allegedly attempting to "normalise" him:
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That triggered an appeal on Twitter for media outlets to note Bannon as a white nationalist when referring to him in articles and video shows:
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As stressed by The Guardianin a tweet, Bannon was charged with domestic violence in 1996. His ex-wife "complained of soreness to her neck" in police department notes from the morning of the call involving Bannon.
On another occasion, she also claimed he said: "He doesn’t like Jews and that he doesn’t like the way they raise their kids to be ‘whiny brats’ and that he didn’t want the girls to go to school with Jews."
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TopicsRacial Justice
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