'i like to judge people as i see it as opposed to seeing what other people say,' reince priebus says. by louis nelson 11/14/16 12:48 pm est updated 11/14/16 01:41 pm est donald trump's allies are defending his decision to name steve bannon a top white house adviser, while mainstream republicans have mostly stayed silent on a choice many are decrying as an extremist with disturbing ties to white nationalists. bannon, republican national committee chairman reince priebus said monday, is actually <u+201c>very wise and smart<u+201d> and <u+201c>was a force for good on this campaign.<u+201d> story continued below trump chose bannon and priebus as <u+201c>equal partners,<u+201d> his transition team said sunday <u+2014> the breitbart news boss as chief strategist and senior counselor to the president, and the longtime wisconsin operative as chief of staff. <u+201c>i like to judge people as i see it as opposed to seeing what other people say,<u+201d> priebus said on <u+201c>fox and friends.<u+201d> <u+201c>i'll tell you: the steve bannon i know is a guy that is really on the same page with a lot of the things <u+2014> almost everything that i agree with as far as advising president-elect trump.<u+201d> in august, bannon took a leave of absence from running the alt-right media outlet, an aggressively promoter of trump all throughout the election, to join his campaign. breitbart has continued to pump out articles attacking republican establishment figures, including priebus and house speaker paul ryan, as traitors secretly working on behalf of the democratic agenda. priebus was asked monday morning if the ideology of breitbart <u+2014> which has published stories headlined <u+201c>there<u+2019>s no hiring bias against women in tech, they just suck at interviews,<u+201d> <u+201c>birth control makes women unattractive and crazy<u+201d> and <u+201c>bill kristol: republican spoiler, renegade jew<u+201d> -- will arrive at the white house with bannon. <u+201c>the guy i know is a guy that isn<u+2019>t any of those things,<u+201d> priebus said on nbc<u+2019>s <u+201c>today,<u+201d> noting that bannon<u+2019>s byline had not appeared on any of those articles even though he was overseeing the website at the time. <u+201c>the guy i know is a guy sitting in an office all day yesterday, talking about hiring and in the last few months, this is a guy who has exhibited none of those qualities. here<u+2019>s a guy who<u+2019>s harvard business school, he was a 10-year naval officer, london school of economics, i believe. he is a guy who is very, very smart, very temperate.<u+201d> off message by glenn thrush but on msnbc<u+2019>s <u+201c>morning joe,<u+201d> priebus alluded to the fact that bannon and breitbart represent an altogether different vision for the gop, noting that trump<u+2019>s campaign was ultimately successful <u+201c>because factions within our party were represented.<u+201d> on capitol hill, house majority leader kevin mccarthy <u+2014> who backed trump during the republican primary <u+2014> dodged questions about bannon<u+2019>s views, emphasizing that it was up to trump to choose his own advisers. "the president-elect always gets to pick his team going forward," mccarthy said during a huddle with congressional reporters. "steve bannon and reince priebus [trump's chief of staff] worked very closely together on this campaign... the president has the right to select who he thinks to be able to move through." mccarthy added: "i don't know steve. i did talk to steve yesterday. i talked to the president-elect again yesterday. i talked to reince." trump<u+2019>s own team, meanwhile, swung into action to defend his appointments. <u+201c>i<u+2019>ve worked closely with both of them. i think it<u+2019>s a great team. and i<u+2019>ll continue to work closely with both of them in some capacity to be decided,<u+201d> trump<u+2019>s campaign manager kellyanne conway told reporters at trump tower. <u+201c>they complement each other. they both have the most important thing: the ear of the boss." <u+201c>people should look at the full resume,<u+201d> conway added -- pointing to bannon<u+2019>s credentials. <u+201c>he has got a harvard business degree. he<u+2019>s a naval officer. he has success in entertainment. i don<u+2019>t know if you<u+2019>re aware of that. and he certainly was a goldman sachs managing partner. brilliant tactician.<u+201d> conway said she was <u+201c>personally offended<u+201d> by reporters<u+2019> suggestion that bannon represented the alt-right, or that <u+201c>i would manage a campaign where that would be one of the going philosophies. it was not. fifty-six million-plus americans or so saw something else.<u+201d> former house speaker newt gingrich, a trump adviser, praised bannon as a <u+201c>great strategist<u+201d> who will keep an eye on the horizon in guiding the manhattan billionaire through the bitter fights of the next four or eight years. trump <u+201c>got a ticket to the dance<u+201d> by winning the election, gingrich told fox news, and bannon will help him navigate <u+201c>four to eight years dancing.<u+201d> <u+201c>everybody who wants donald trump to succeed should cue off the mainstream media,<u+201d> gingrich said. <u+201c>if the mainstream media hates something, it's probably a really good idea. i mean, let's be clear: they are the mortal opponents of what trump is trying to achieve.<u+201d> <u+201c>they now want to come back and say that anything that anybody ever published in breitbart is steve bannon,<u+201d> gingrich added. <u+201c>that<u+2019>s baloney.<u+201d> rnc member randy evans, a trump supporter and gingrich ally, said on cnn that bannon would make an excellent chief strategist because, like his predecessor karl rove and david axelrod, he <u+201c>has a connection with what american -- average americans think.<u+201d> but democratic lawmakers were not so eager to let bannon, and by extension trump, off the hook. noting that breitbart has published news sections on <u+201c>black crime<u+201d> and compared planned parenthood to the holocaust, sen. jeff merkley said the appointment of bannon flies in the face of the unifying language trump has used since winning the presidency. <u+201c>there should be no sugarcoating the truth here: donald trump just invited a white nationalist into the highest reaches of the government,<u+201d> merkley said in a statement. <u+201c>bannon has boasted that he made breitbart news <u+2018>the platform for the alt-right,<u+2019> which is the politically correct term for the resurrection of white nationalism.<u+201d> house minority leader nancy pelosi (d-calif.) used similar language to merkley's in her own statement, writing that "there must be no sugarcoating the reality that a white nationalist has been named chief strategist for the trump administration." she said democrats would remain committed to "finding common ground" but added that "we will stand our ground and strongly oppose attempts by this administration to scapegoat and persecute americans because of who they are, how they worship or who they love." the southern poverty law center <u+2014> an ngo that monitors hate groups <u+2014> agreed, blaming bannon for making breitbart into a <u+201c>white ethno-nationalist propaganda mill<u+201d> and calling on trump to undo his appointment. anti-defamation league ceo jonathan greenblatt commended trump for picking priebus to be chief of staff, but said bannon and the alt-right are <u+201c>hostile to core american values.<u+201d> <u+201c>it is a sad day when a man who presided over the premier website of the <u+2018>alt-right<u+2019> <u+2014> a loose-knit group of white nationalists and unabashed anti-semites and racists <u+2014> is slated to be a senior staff member in the <u+2018>people<u+2019>s house,<u+2019><u+201d> greenblatt said in a statement. presidential transition by eli stokols priebus, making the rounds on the morning shows, sought to reassure americans who are alarmed about trump<u+2019>s victory and uncertain of his true intentions. advertising executive donny deutsch, a regular panelist on <u+201c>morning joe,<u+201d> told priebus that with the campaign behind him, trump should deliver a speech telling americans that he would behave differently as president. <u+201c>in a street fight, sometimes do you and say things, and i know people are frightened out there. don't be,<u+201d> deutsch told the incoming chief of staff, recommending some messaging for the president-elect. <u+201c>walk some of that stuff back. he does that, the dominos all fall. it's that simple.<u+201d> <u+201c>i think that's good advice. and that's where president-elect trump heart<u+2019>s at. he doesn't like seeing the things that are on tv right now,<u+201d> priebus responded. <u+201c>it's not who he is. it's not what he wants to represent. and he wants people that are out there, even tonight, that are protesting to let him govern. let him make you proud of our country.<u+201d> by thomas wright by bill scher by joshua zeitz by jack shafer
trump allies defend steve bannon - politico
louis nelson eli stokols jack shafer