Casey ‘deeply troubled’ by Bannon appointment
Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey has blasted President-elect Donald Trump’s appointment of an ultra-conservative media mogul, described by critics as a white nationalist and anti-Semite, to a senior White House advisory role, but Republican congressional members in the region were silent on the growing controversy Tuesday.
In a statement released Monday night, Casey, of Scranton, said he was “deeply troubled” that Stephen Bannon, the head of Breitbart News, will have the ear of Trump as his chief strategist and senior counselor.
“Stephen Bannon has led an organization, Breitbart News, that the Southern Poverty Law Center has said ‘has undergone a noticeable shift toward embracing ideas on the extremist fringe of the conservative right,'” Casey said, “‘Racist ideas. Anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant ideas — all key tenets making up an emerging racist ideology known as the ‘Alt-Right.'”
Casey said the term alt-right “is nothing more than a euphemism for white nationalism” and he highlighted some of Breitbart’s work, including calling conservative political pundit Bill Kristol a “renegade Jew,” before joining a chorus of mostly Democratic critics who have called on Trump to rescind Bannon’s appointment.
That story and headline was defended on Monday by the Jewish author David Horowitz, who wrote the piece after Kristol denounced Trump as the GOP’s candidate.
Bannon, a former Wall Street investment banker, was also accused by his ex-wife in court filings of not wanting their daughter to attend school with Jewish children, but he has denied those charges.
“President-elect Trump has to be a president for all Americans; placing this individual in a position of such significant power undermines that claim,” Casey said. “Stephen Bannon is someone who has demonstrated disregard for common decency and values that all Americans should share. I would urge President-elect Trump to reconsider.”
Casey’s fellow Pennsylvanian in the Senate, newly re-elected GOP U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, though, did not offer any comment through a spokeswoman.
Carly Atchison, the spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair Township, said Murphy would not be offering a comment because he “respects the President-elect’s constitutional prerogative to appoint individuals of his choosing.”
Neither U.S. Rep. Keith Rothfus, R-Sewickley, or U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Bedford County, responded to requests for comment placed through their spokespeople.
While southwest Pennsylvania Republican legislators were mum on Bannon’s appointment, admitted white nationalists, such as former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke of Louisiana, were overjoyed with it, which only enraged anti-Trump forces more.
“I think that’s excellent,” Duke told CNN’s KFile. “I think that anyone that helps complete the program and the policies that President-elect Trump has developed during the campaign is a very good thing, obviously.”