Who
are Trump appointees Reince Priebus and Stephen Bannon?
A
Washington insider who could help push Trump’s agenda through
Congress and the chair of a far-right website who has been accused of
peddling white supremacist rhetoric
Nadia Khomami
Monday 14 November
2016 11.32 GMT
Donald Trump has
named Reince Priebus as his White House chief of staff and Stephen
Bannon as his chief strategist and senior counsellor, describing them
as “highly qualified leaders who worked well together on our
campaign and led us to a historic victory”.
The president-elect
has said that Priebus and Bannon, neither of whom have served in
elected office, will work as “equal partners to transform the
federal government”.
Stephen Bannon
Bannon, 62, replaced
former lobbyist Paul Manafort as Trump’s campaign chief when
Manafort left after reports of his past ties to pro-Kremlin Ukrainian
politicians.
Bannon was the
executive chairman of the far-right website Brietbart News for much
of the past decade. The site is the most widely read conservative
news and opinion site in the US, but it is charged with being racist,
antisemitic and sexist, and of repeatedly peddling conspiracy
theories to further its agenda.
Breitbart has, among
other things, accused Obama of “importing more hating Muslims”,
compared conservative commentator Bill Kristol to a “renegade Jew”,
likened Planned Parenthood’s work to the Holocaust, said young
Muslims in the west were a “ticking time bomb”, and advised
female victims of online harassment to “just log off” and stop
“screwing up the internet for men”.
Bannon stands on the
far right of the Republican party. Following his appointment, the
Anti-Defamation League’s chief executive, Jonathan Greenblatt,
issued a statement calling Bannon “hostile to core American
values”.
“It is a sad day
when a man who presided over the premier website of the ‘alt-right’
– a loose-knit group of white nationalists and unabashed
antisemites and racists – is slated to be a senior staff member in
the ‘people’s house’,” Greenblatt said.
Adam Jentleson, a
spokesman for Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader,
said: “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.”
Bannon is a graduate
of Georgetown University and Harvard Business school. He is a former
US Navy officer and investment banker at Goldman Sachs. He has also
made documentary films celebrating Ronald Reagan, Sarah Palin and the
Tea Party, and was an early investor in the sitcom Seinfeld.
In 2007, Bannon’s
ex-wife accused him of making antisemitic remarks when the two
battled over sending their daughters to private school. Mary Louise
Piccard said her former husband had objected to sending their twin
daughters to an elite Los Angeles academy because he “didn’t want
the girls going to school with Jews”, an accusation Bannon denied.
In 1996, Bannon
faced domestic violence charges after Piccard accused him of grabbing
her by the neck “violently” and destroying a telephone when she
tried to summon police. The charges were dropped after his estranged
wife did not show up at the trial, according to court records.
In August this year,
the Guardian found that Bannon was registered to vote in Florida, a
key swing state, at an empty house where he did not live, in an
apparent breach of election laws. The revelation followed years of
aggressive claims by Breitbart News that voter fraud was rife among
minorities and in Democratic-leaning areas, an allegation that was
repeated forcefully on the campaign trail by Trump, who predicted
that the election would be “rigged”.
Bannon subsequently
changed his registration.
He co-owns a
condominium in Los Angeles and is known to stay at the so-called
“Breitbart embassy”, a luxurious $2.4m townhouse beside the
supreme court in Washington DC, where Breitbart staff work from
basement offices.
Bannon has
repeatedly criticised Republicans for not moving far enough to the
right of the political spectrum. While Priebus’s selection signals
an attempt to build bridges with the old Republican guard, Bannon’s
appointment by Trump shows a commitment to the president-elect’s
promise to “drain the swamp” of Washington.
“We had a very
successful partnership on the campaign, one that led to victory,”
Bannon said of Priebus in a statement. “We will have that same
partnership in working to help President-elect Trump achieve his
agenda.”
Reince Priebus
Priebus, 44, is the
long-serving chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC) and
loyal adviser to the Trump campaign.
He is a Washington
insider, having worked in government since 2004, and his friendship
with the House speaker, Paul Ryan, is expected to be instrumental in
securing early legislative victories for the Trump administration.
A lawyer by
training, Priebus served as state treasurer in Wisconsin and worked
his way up through the Wisconsin Republican party to become chairman
in 2007.
After he led his
party to success in the November 2010 elections in the state, which
had previously been held by the Democrats, Priebus, together with
Ryan and Scott Walker, became known as part of a rising Republican
movement in Wisconsin that was influential at a national level. “A
trio of young Wisconsin politicians are now positioned to have a
substantial influence on the future direction and success of the
Republican party,” the Washington Post wrote in 2011.
Priebus was elected
to the job of chairman of the RNC in 2011, unseating Michael Steele,
for whom he once served as general counsel. As part of his bid, he
promised to put the committee’s finances in order and to modernise
the party.
He later led the
so-called “autopsy report” after the Republicans failed to win
the 2012 presidential election, recommending efforts to win over
Hispanic and women voters.
Priebus consistently
appealed for unity within the Republican party, regardless of who
would become the nominee, and forged a positive relationship with
Trump following his victory in the primaries. He worked hard over
several months to persuade rebellious factions to fall into line
behind Trump, who, among others, had alienated the 2012 nominee, Mitt
Romney, the Bush family, as well as a handful of outspoken senators
such as Susan Collins.
In August, Priebus
said when it came to personal issues with Trump “I go with the
flow”, and the following month, he suggested the party may take
punitive action against failed presidential candidates who reneged on
pledges to support him.
He earned Trump’s
trust after steering the RNC’s resources behind the candidate
despite Republican officials urging him to abandon the businessman.
When Trump’s candidacy was steeped in controversy following the
release of a 2005 tape in which he boasted of groping and kissing
women without their consent, Priebus stood by his candidate and
worked hard to salvage his run for office.
In the final stages
of the campaign, Priebus travelled with Trump and held a critical
position in helping him prepare for the debates against the
Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton. Trump praised Priebus during his
victory speech, stating: “I never had a bad second with him. He’s
an unbelievable star.”
Priebus’s reward
is his appointment to one of the most powerful positions in
Washington, from which he will be charged with ensuring that the
president’s agenda passes uninhibited through Congress. His links
to the Republican establishment will be significant for Trump, who
has never served in government and has few links to mainstream
figures in the party, many of whom turned away from him due to his
mockery of disabled people and prisoners of war, as well as the
string of sexual assault allegations that followed him throughout his
campaign.
On Sunday, Priebus
said in a statement that the Trump White House would “work to
create an economy that works for everyone, secure our borders, repeal
and replace Obamacare and destroy radical Islamic terrorism”.
Trump
campaign CEO Stephen Bannon denies antisemitic remarks
In
sworn court declaration following their divorce in 2007, Bannon’s
ex-wife said he ‘didn’t want the girls going to school with Jews’
Saturday 27 August
2016 06.06 BST Last modified on Sunday 13 November 2016 14.59 GMT
This article is 2
months old
An ex-wife of Donald
Trump’s new campaign CEO, Stephen Bannon, said Bannon made
antisemitic remarks when the two battled over sending their daughters
to private school nearly a decade ago, according to court papers.
That revelation came
a day after reports emerged that domestic violence charges were filed
20 years ago against Bannon following an altercation with his
then-wife, Mary Louise Piccard.
In a sworn court
declaration following their divorce, Piccard said her ex-husband had
objected to sending their twin daughters to an elite Los Angeles
academy because he “didn’t want the girls going to school with
Jews”.
“He said he
doesn’t like Jews and that he doesn’t like the way they raise
their kids to be ‘whiney brats,’” Piccard said in a 2007 court
filing.
Bannon, the former
head of Breitbart News, took the helm of Trump’s campaign last week
in yet another leadership shake-up. The campaign has been plagued by
negative stories about staffers, including charges lodged against his
former campaign manager following an altercation with a reporter, and
questions about his former campaign chairman’s links with Russian
interests.
Alexandra Preate, a
spokeswoman for Bannon, denied on Friday night that he made
antisemitic remarks about the private school. “Mr Bannon never said
anything like that and proudly sent the girls to Archer for their
middle school and high school education,” she said.
Trump has previously
been criticized for invoking antisemitic stereotypes, including
tweeting an anti-Hillary Clinton image that included a Star of David
on top of a pile of money.
He also raised
eyebrows when he spoke in front of the Republican Jewish Coalition
and declared, “I’m a negotiator like you folks were negotiators.”
Clinton has tried in
recent days to highlight Trump’s popularity with white nationalist
and supremacist groups. She delivered a speech on Thursday that
linked him with the “alt-right” movement, which is often
associated with efforts on the far right to preserve “white
identity”, oppose multiculturalism and defend “western values”.
Trump has pushed
back, defending himself and his supporters, and labeling Clinton “a
bigot” for supporting policies he argues have ravaged minority
communities.
Trump has noted that
his daughter, Ivanka, would soon be giving birth to another Jewish
child. Ivanka Trump converted to Orthodox Judaism when she married
Jared Kushner, a young real estate developer who has become a driving
force in his father-in-law’s campaign.
The court filing was
among several documents related to Bannon and Picard’s voluminous
divorce case, filed in 1997, which was revisited several times as
Piccard sought support for tuition and other expenses. The documents
reviewed were part of a request for Bannon to pay $25,000 in legal
fees and to cover the $64,000 in tuition it cost to send both girls
to the Archer School for Girls for the 2007-08 school year.
Trump deletes tweet
with image of the star of David, Hillary Clinton and money
Read more
Bannon’s remarks
about Jews followed other comments that caught Piccard’s attention
when they were visiting private schools in 2000.
At one school, she
said, he asked the director why there were so many Hanukkah books in
the library. At another school, he asked Piccard if it bothered her
that the school used to be in a temple.
“I said, ‘No,’
and asked why he asked,” Piccard said. “He did not respond.”
Piccard said Bannon
wanted the girls to attend a Catholic school.
In 2007, when the
girls were accepted at Archer, he told Piccard he objected because of
the number of Jews in attendance.
Piccard filed for
divorce in January 1997, just over a year after she told police
Bannon roughed her up on New Year’s Day 1996 following a spat over
money, in which she spit on him.
A police report said
he grabbed her wrist and “grabbed at” her neck. When she tried to
call 911, she told police that Bannon grabbed the phone and threw it
across the room. An officer who responded reported seeing red marks
on her wrist and neck.
Bannon was charged
in 1996 with misdemeanor witness intimidation, domestic violence with
traumatic injury and battery, according to a Santa Monica,
California, police report. The charges were dropped after his
estranged wife did not show up at trial, according to court records.
Piccard said in her
declaration that she skipped the trial after Bannon and his lawyer
arranged for her to leave town. She said Bannon had told her the
lawyer would make her look like the guilty party if she testified and
the attorney told her she would be broke if Bannon went to jail.
The Trump campaign
declined to comment on the abuse charges. Preate said police never
interviewed Bannon. She added that Bannon has a great relationship
with his ex-wife and kids.
On Saturday, Senator
Joni Ernst, a Trump supporter, told reporters at an event in Iowa
which the candidate was scheduled to address: “I can’t speak to
Trump and who he hires [but] we all know … I stand very firm on
this, that sexual assault or domestic violence is never OK.”
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