Deborah Lipstadt ‘Flabbergasted’ by Appointment of Hatemonger Steve Bannon
Image by Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images
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.”
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
