Deborah Lipstadt ‘Flabbergasted’ by Appointment of Hatemonger Steve Bannon
Image by Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images
Sign up for Forwarding the News, our essential morning briefing with trusted, nonpartisan news and analysis, curated by Senior Writer Benyamin Cohen.
Historian Deborah Lipstadt has denounced Donald Trump’s appointment of right wing firebrand Steve Bannon to a top White House position, saying she is “flabbergasted” that a purveyor of hate has made it to the president’s inner circle.
“I’m flabbergasted. I’m almost at a loss for words,” Lipstadt, a Jewish historian based at Emory University, told Politico. “So far, I find that the most depressing of almost anything I’ve heard thus far.”
Lipstadt noted that Bannon’s Breitbart News has attacked minorities and provided a haven for the so-called “alt-right,” which she called a euphemism for bigotry.
“I know what the alt-right is all about,” said Lipstadt, who was a vocal supporter of Hillary Clinton. “It’s a bastion of white supremacists, white nationalists, anti-Semitic, racist, Islamophobic expression.”
