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David French, National Review: Fire Steve Bannon
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/450465/fire-steve-bannon-white-house-no-place-alt-right-apologistsThe alt-right’s primary “contribution” to Trump’s election was a sustained, vicious assault on his opponents. I’ve told my story before. I saw our young daughter photo-shopped into gas chambers, terrible images of dead and dying black men and women plastered all over my wife’s blog, e-mailed threats, and terrifying phone hacks. And I was hardly alone. My friend Ben Shapiro endured an avalanche of anti-Semitism. Erick Erickson’s family faced a nightmare of threats. There was hardly a conservative Trump opponent who didn’t face such trash to some degree. I knew multiple journalists who, for the first times in their careers, legitimately feared not just for their lives but for their family members’ lives as well.
In response to this evil movement, Breitbart stood out among prominent conservative outlets, publishing perhaps the most influential apologetic for the alt-right and promoting that piece’s co-author, Milo Yiannopoulos, as its premiere writer and personality. Yiannopoulos himself “trolled” and attacked Trump’s opponents relentlessly, blasting out anti-Semitic messages at his targets and inspiring legions of Twitter followers to do the same. Meanwhile, Breitbart published bizarre hit pieces against its critics, including a video directed specifically at Shapiro that’s chock-full of alt-right language and themes. The site’s comment boards transformed into an open sewer, a virtual meeting place for the alt-right.
-snip-
Bannon’s actions indicate that, if nothing else, he’s a vicious opportunist. As alt-right leader Richard Spencer explained, under Bannon’s leadership, Breitbart turned into a “gateway to alt-right ideas and writers.” His former colleague Ben Shapiro called him a “vindictive, nasty figure, infamous for verbally abusing supposed friends and threatening enemies.” Vindictive men who promote the work of racists and normalize their ideas obviously shouldn’t be within 100 miles of political power, never mind two steps from the Oval Office. Earlier today President Trump clearly and explicitly repudiated racism and white supremacy. This was a positive step, a vast improvement from his statement on Saturday, which pointedly omitted any reference to white supremacy, Nazism, or their acolytes. While today’s political violence is still far from that seen on the worst days of the late 1960s and early 1970s, this weekend’s events have rightfully shaken millions of well-meaning Americans.
-snip-
If the president wants to take decisive action to distance himself from America’s most hateful elements, there is one thing he can do today: He can fire Steve Bannon, the man who gave them a platform.
In response to this evil movement, Breitbart stood out among prominent conservative outlets, publishing perhaps the most influential apologetic for the alt-right and promoting that piece’s co-author, Milo Yiannopoulos, as its premiere writer and personality. Yiannopoulos himself “trolled” and attacked Trump’s opponents relentlessly, blasting out anti-Semitic messages at his targets and inspiring legions of Twitter followers to do the same. Meanwhile, Breitbart published bizarre hit pieces against its critics, including a video directed specifically at Shapiro that’s chock-full of alt-right language and themes. The site’s comment boards transformed into an open sewer, a virtual meeting place for the alt-right.
-snip-
Bannon’s actions indicate that, if nothing else, he’s a vicious opportunist. As alt-right leader Richard Spencer explained, under Bannon’s leadership, Breitbart turned into a “gateway to alt-right ideas and writers.” His former colleague Ben Shapiro called him a “vindictive, nasty figure, infamous for verbally abusing supposed friends and threatening enemies.” Vindictive men who promote the work of racists and normalize their ideas obviously shouldn’t be within 100 miles of political power, never mind two steps from the Oval Office. Earlier today President Trump clearly and explicitly repudiated racism and white supremacy. This was a positive step, a vast improvement from his statement on Saturday, which pointedly omitted any reference to white supremacy, Nazism, or their acolytes. While today’s political violence is still far from that seen on the worst days of the late 1960s and early 1970s, this weekend’s events have rightfully shaken millions of well-meaning Americans.
-snip-
If the president wants to take decisive action to distance himself from America’s most hateful elements, there is one thing he can do today: He can fire Steve Bannon, the man who gave them a platform.