When Steve Bannon Downplayed Anti-Semitism and Racism of ‘Alt Right’
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— Stephen Bannon, in a 2014 talk, said racism would eventually get “washed out” of right-wing nationalist movements, and spoke repeatedly of Western society being built on “Judeo-Christian” ideas.
Bannon, the chairman of President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign who was named this week by Trump to be a top White House adviser, has been accused of being part of a broad movement, the alt-right, which includes racists and anti-Semites. Earlier this year, he called Breitbart News, the website he formerly chaired, a “platform for the alt-right.”
A number of Jewish groups have condemned his hiring, a few defended it and others are silent.
In a question-and-answer session he gave at a conference at the Vatican in 2014, unearthed by Buzzfeed News, Bannon downplayed concerns of anti-Semitism and racism in European right-wing nationalist parties, suggesting that bigots were on the fringes of those movements and would fade away.
“I’m not an expert in this, but it seems that they have had some aspects that may be anti-Semitic or racial,” Bannon said, according to the transcript published by Buzzfeed Tuesday. “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.”
Bannon expressed similar sentiments in an interview with the New York Times Tuesday, saying “It’s not that some people on the margins, as in any movement, aren’t bad guys — racists, anti-Semites. But that’s irrelevant.”
In the 2014 Vatican talk, Bannon stressed several times that Western civilization was built on “Judeo-Christian” values.
“If you look at the leaders of capitalism at that time, when capitalism was I believe at its highest flower and spreading its benefits to most of mankind, almost all of those capitalists were strong believers in the Judeo-Christian West,” Bannon said, according to a transcript published by Buzzfeed Tuesday. “They were either active participants in the Jewish faith, they were active participants in the Christians’ faith, and they took their beliefs, and the underpinnings of their beliefs was manifested in the work they did.”
Attempts to pin down whether Bannon himself shares some of the views of some of the bigots that are part of the loose-knit alt-right movement have focused on part on his ex-wife’s sworn affidavits during a 2007 custody battle, in which she accused him of battery and also of making anti-Semitic remarks while they searched for a private school for their girls. Bannon has denied her account.
According to the ex-wife’s testimony, Bannon objected to one school in the Los Angeles area, The Archer School for Girls, because Jews raise their children to be “whiny brats” and he did not want his daughters attending a school with Jews.
In another incident, at the Westland School, he “asked the director why there were so many Chanukah books in the library,” according to the affidavit.
New York Magazine on Tuesday reported that it had confirmed with the director of the Westland School that the exchange about Chanukah had indeed taken place, but the director did not view Bannon’s question as anti-Semitic.
The director, who is Jewish and asked not to be named, said the issue of Chnaukah arose during discussion on the school’s outlook on religion; the school celebrates all religions without adhering to any of them. Bannon apparently misunderstood, according to this account, and believed that the school did not entertain any religious engagement, and wondered, then, why he saw so many Chanukah books in the library.
“I think the context was different from what I’ve read in the papers,” she told New York.
Criticism of Bannon’s appointment by groups like the Anti-Defamation League and Union for Reform Judaism focused on his work as editor at the often controversial Breitbart, not his private life. The URJ statement said that in his role at Breitbart, “Bannon was responsible for the advancement of ideologies antithetical to our nation, including anti-Semitism, misogyny, racism and Islamophobia.”
Separately, the Zionist Organization of America has invited Bannon to its annual gala next month in New York, Jewish Insider reported. The ZOA, which is right-wing and noted Breitbart’s advocacy for Israel, was one of the two groups that have defended Bannon. The other is the Republican Jewish Coalition.
Morton Klein, the ZOA president, told Jewish Insider that Bannon may speak at the event.
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