‘He Is a Guy Who’s Very, Very Smart’
Donald Trump‘s incoming Chief of Staff Reince Priebus insists the president-elect’s newly-named top advisor, white nationalist Steve Bannon, couldn’t be a white nationalist because he’s well-educated, has served in the military, and is very smart.
“That wasn’t his writing, that was some articles in Breitbart, it wasn’t him,” Priebus said, falsely, in an attempt to minimize the fact that the Breitbart website, which Bannon publishes, caters to the far-right and alt-right.Â
“The guy I know is a guy that isn’t any of those things,” Priebus told NBC News’ Samantha Guthrie Monday morning on the “Today” show. “Here’s a guy who’s Harvard Business School, he was a 10-year naval officer, London School of Economics I believe. He is a guy who’s very, very smart, very temperate,” Priebus said, as if those accomplishments somehow prove he couldn’t hold or promote vile or disgusting views about Black people, Muslims, LGBT people, Jewish people, other minorities, or women.
While NBC’s Guthrie didn’t challenge Priebus on any of this, and in fact she phrased her question as an opportunity for Priebus to deny he’s proud to run the platform for the alt-right movement, no one has specifically asked Bannon himself – except Mother Jones magazine.
But in fact, Bannon bragged that Breitbart is the home of the alt-right movement.Â
“We’re the platform for the alt-right,” Bannon proudly said at the RNC in July.Â
But not according to RNC Chair and now Trump White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus.
Watch:
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