washington<u+2014> donald trump <u+2019>s appointment of media executive steve bannon to an influential white house post drew sharp criticism from democrats, who cited his news outlet<u+2019>s incendiary articles about ethnic and religious minorities during his tenure. the criticism on monday followed a presidential campaign in which the republican nominee drew support from the ku klux klan and other white nationalist groups. mr. bannon, who led the breitbart news network before joining the campaign as chief executive, has in the past linked his site to the <u+201c>alt-right,<u+201d> a movement that includes people who view immigration and multiculturalism as threats to white identity. in may, before mr. bannon joined mr. trump<u+2019>s campaign, his news outlet ran an article calling conservative foreign-policy journalist bill kristol a <u+201c>republican spoiler, renegade jew.<u+201d> in july, it ran two articles with the headlines: <u+201c>the solution to online <u+2018>harassment<u+2019> is simple: women should log off<u+201d> and <u+201c>there<u+2019>s no hiring bias against women in tech, they just suck at interviews.<u+201d> the website also warned of a <u+201c>muslim rape culture.<u+201d> two weeks after nine african-americans were shot in a charleston, s.c., church in 2015 by a man who had posed for a photograph with the confederate flag, breitbart ran an article with the headline: <u+201c>hoist it high and proud: the confederate flag proclaims a glorious heritage.<u+201d> evan mcmullin, the former chief policy director of the house republican conference who ran as an independent candidate for president, called on republican leaders to try to derail his appointment. <u+201c>this is sort of a test case for our republican leaders,<u+201d> mr. mcmullin said in an interview. <u+201c>i would hope that for our republican leaders, that this would be one of those situations in which they would say, we have got to <u+2018>check<u+2019> donald trump and let him know that this isn<u+2019>t an acceptable decision.<u+201d> the position mr. trump has assigned to mr. bannon, chief strategist and senior counselor, doesn<u+2019>t require senate approval. the spokesman for senate minority leader harry reid (d., nev.) went further, saying, <u+201c>it is easy to see why the kkk views trump as their champion when trump appoints one of the foremost peddlers of white supremacist themes and rhetoric as his top aide.<u+201d> breitbart editor in chief alexander marlow said the accusation that his news organization promotes <u+201c>white nationalism is a truly vicious lie.<u+201d> <u+201c>we<u+2019>ve always said we are nationalist, and that is because we are pro-american values,<u+201d> he said. he added that some of the headlines on breitbart<u+2019>s opinion pieces have been twisted by critics, and he said other articles that have attracted criticism are opposed because they don<u+2019>t bow to political correctness. he said the website had 42 million visitors each month. kellyanne conway, a top adviser to the president-elect, defended him in a brief exchange with reporters in trump tower. <u+201c>i worked very closely with steve bannon,<u+201d> she told reporters. <u+201c>he<u+2019>s been the general of this campaign. and frankly people should look at the full r<u+00e9>sum<u+00e9>. 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.<u+201d> she also noted that mr. bannon, 62 years old, had worked for goldman sachs , which he did from 1985 until 1990. mr. bannon took over breitbart news after the 2012 death of conservative author and activist andrew breitbart. the white house appointment threatened to overshadow a newly organized transition team that planned to hit the ground running on monday. vice president-elect mike pence was charged with leading the transition team on friday. in the next few months, the president-elect and his team must identify 15 candidates for cabinet posts and thousands of people to staff his administration. they also must chart out a legislative agenda for the first few months of his presidency and plan for an inauguration ceremony in january. mr. trump is also seeking to ease concerns about his elevation to the presidency, which has become the focus of continuing protests, by softening his tone in interviews and measuring some of his policy proposals. mr. bannon has long predicted what he sees as the coming demise of the republican party, and he has vowed to shake it up by whatever means necessary. <u+201c>it<u+2019>s the moral equivalent of the whigs before the civil war, that is a party that has gotten away from its bearings, its roots,<u+201d> he told fox news in 2011. born: education: career: trump ties: through his website, mr. bannon was able to capture the energy of the tea-party movement, and he often stoked resentment at the party<u+2019>s establishment. <u+00a0><u+201c>you are continually stabbed in the back, mocked and ridiculed by your <u+2018>betters,<u+2019> <u+201d> mr. bannon said to a tea-party group earlier this year. when mr. trump began his run for the white house in 2015, mr. bannon and breitbart news became full-throated supporters. a number of top staffers resigned from breitbart earlier this year, including editor-at-large ben shapiro, who at the time called mr. bannon a <u+201c>bully<u+201d> who <u+201c>has shaped [breitbart] into trump<u+2019>s own personal pravda.<u+201d> after he joined the campaign as a top adviser, mr. bannon urged mr. trump to focus on energizing white working class voters, who ultimately came out in higher-than-expected numbers and helped the gop nominee defeat democrat hillary clinton. on monday, a number of republicans defended the choice. house majority leader kevin mccarthy (r., calif.) told reporters that, <u+201c>the president has a right to select the team,<u+201d> and said that while he didn<u+2019>t know mr. bannon, he would give him <u+201c>the benefit of the doubt.<u+201d> mr. mccarthy also questioned whether mr. bannon was responsible for the most inflammatory breitbart headlines. former arkansas gov. mike huckabee, meanwhile, wrote on twitter that <u+201c>critics of steve bannon know he<u+2019>s smarter and tougher than they are.<u+201d> reince priebus, whom mr. trump named as his chief of staff on sunday, defended mr. bannon in a monday interview on nbc but didn<u+2019>t weigh in on some of breitbart<u+2019>s more incendiary work. <u+201c>i<u+2019>ve spent a lot of time with him,<u+201d> mr. priebus said of mr. bannon. <u+201c>and here<u+2019>s a guy who<u+2019>s a harvard business school, london school of economics, 10-year naval officer advising admirals. he was a force for good on the campaign at every level that i saw, all the time.<u+201d> <u+2014>peter nicholas and kristina peterson contributed to this article. write to damian paletta at damian.paletta@wsj.com
donald trump draws criticism over steve bannon appointment - wsj
damian paletta