Senate

Dem senator: Trump should ‘rescind’ Bannon appointment

by Jordain Carney - 11/14/16 11:30 AM ET

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) is urging Donald Trump to “rescind” his decision to make Stephen Bannon a chief strategist, arguing the president-elect is putting a “white nationalist” in a top White House post.

“Donald Trump needs to forcefully denounce the hateful actions and efforts to intimidate people that some of his supporters are undertaking and rescind the appointment of Steve Bannon,” Merkley said Monday.

{mosads}He added that “there should be no sugarcoating the truth here: Donald Trump just invited a white nationalist into the highest reaches of the government.”

Trump on Sunday announced Bannon’s post as chief strategist and senior counselor and said that Reince Priebus, currently the chairman of the Republican National Committee, would be his White House chief of staff.

Democrats panned Trump’s selection of Bannon, who previously served as chairman of the conservative Breitbart News site that supported Trump’s bid and has been critical of Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).

Adam Jentleson, a spokesman for outgoing Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), said the pick “signals that White Supremacists will be represented at the highest levels in Trump’s White House.”

Merkley — the only senator to support independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’s presidential bid — added Monday that Bannon “boasted that he made Breitbart News ‘the platform for the alt-right,’ which is the politically correct term for the resurrection of white nationalism.”

“Steve Bannon bears substantial responsibility for the open and disgusting acts of hatred that are sweeping across our nation,” he said. “[Trump] has done nothing meaningful to stop the wave of hate crimes and hate speech he has unleashed, and now has brought that strategy right into the Oval Office.”

Tags Bernie Sanders Donald Trump Harry Reid Jeff Merkley Paul Ryan