Bannon Dismisses ‘Alt-Right’ As ‘Losers’ In Off-The-Script Interview

By Daniel J. Solomon August 17, 2017

Following Anthony Scaramucci’s accidental interviewonversation with the New Yorker, one might think Trump administration staffers would have set rules of engagement with reporters. But Steve Bannon sounded off to the American Prospect without asking to go off the record.

In the most surprising twist from the interview, Bannon appeared to distance himself from the “alt-right,” which he bragged about creating a platform for while the head of Breitbart News.

“Ethno-nationalism — it’s losers. It’s a fringe element,” he said. “I think the media plays it up too much.”

He also discussed his plans to stack the State Department with allies, replacing traditional diplomatic types with “hawks.” Bannon, coming off the November victory, mocked the Democrats and their embrace of “identity politics.” “The Democrats,” he said, “the longer they talk about identity politics, I got ’em. I want them to talk about racism every day. If the left is focused on race and identity, and we go with economic nationalism, we can crush the Democrats.”

The story crashed the site of the American Prospect, a small politics and policy magazine based in the Washington, D.C. Read a cached version here.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at solomon@forward.com or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

Daniel J. Solomon is the former Assistant to the Editor/News Writer at the Forward. Originally from Queens, he attended Harvard as an undergraduate, where he wrote his senior thesis on French-Jewish intellectual history. He is excited to have returned to New York after his time in Massachusetts. Daniel’s passions include folk music, cycling, and pointed argument.

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