David Duke Approves of Donald Trump Hiring Breitbart’s Stephen Bannon

Image by Wikimedia

By Thea Glassman August 22, 2016

David Duke says that Donald’s Trump new campaign chief Stephen Bannon will help give white supremacists a significant foothold in the Republican Party.

Bannon, who was named Trump’s campaign boss last Wednesday, is the chairman of Breitbart Media, a news website that energetically supports the current Republican candidate.

Duke, the former Ku Klux Klansman who is running for senate from Louisiana, spoke with Don Advo, a radio host and contributor to the neo-Nazi blog Daily Stormer.

“We appear to have taken over the Republican Party,” Advo said, during the radio interview, using an anti-Semitic slur.

Duke trumpeted the importance of Bannon’s appointment — but said racists and anti-Semites still have plenty of work to consolidate power in the GOP.

duke alt right by DailyPolitics

“Well, rank and file, but a lot of those boll weevils are still in those cotton balls, and the Republican Party may be a European-American populated party, but like a ball of cotton, you can have boll weevils in there that are going to rot it out from the inside,” Duke replied.

According to Breitbart News’ former editor-in-chief Ben Shapiro, the website took a significant alt-right shift after Bannon took charge.

“Andrew Breitbart despised racism. Truly despised it.” Shapiro wrote. “With Bannon embracing Trump, all that changed. Now Breitbart has become the alt-right go-to website, with [Breitbart’s technology editor] Yiannopoulos pushing white ethno-nationalism as a legitimate response to political correctness, and the comment section turning into a cesspool for white supremacist mememakers.”

While Trump has gotten cozy with alt-righters, he has continued to struggle with African-American voters. According to the Washington Post, he clocks in with a paltry 2% in polls.

Thea Glassman was an associate editor for the Forward. Follow her on twitter @theakglassman.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO