Washington: They were asides in an Obama press conference on Monday – "gestures are important;" and later, "it's important to send signals of unity – to reach out to minority groups and others who were concerned by the tenor of the campaign."
The outgoing president deliberately sidestepped invitations to join a critics' pile-on over Donald Trump's naming of the white nationalist lightning rod Stephen Bannon as his chief strategist in the White House.
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Who is Trump's trusted advisor?
Stephen Bannon is widely expected to soon be one of the most powerful men in America.
But in saying as little as he did, Obama spoke volumes about the controversy of having the likes of Bannon so close to the Oval office.
Likewise, senior elected Republicans made their criticism of Trump's embrace of Bannon as loud by saying virtually nothing about it – instead they heaped praise on Trump's good sense in appointing Republican Party chairman Reince Priebus as his White House chief of staff.
Trump is enamoured of Bannon for his role in converting what had been a chaotic presidential campaign into a stunningly winning venture. But Bannon came to Trump from Breitbart News, an online haven for conspiracy theorists and for the so-called alt-right, an outlier conservative movement steeped in racist rhetoric, white nationalism and anti Semitism.
You be the judge – here are links to a selection of Breitbart's more offensive offerings:
- Bill Kristol: Republican spoiler, renegade Jew
- Lesbian bridezillas bully bridal shop owner over religious beliefs
- Teenage boys with tits: Here's my problem with Ghostbusters
- Hoist it high and proud: The Confederate flag proclaims a glorious heritage
- There's no hiring bias against women in tech, they just suck at interviews
- Pamela Geller's Muhammad cartoon contest is no different from Selma
- Sympathy for the devils: The plot against Roger Ailes
- Gabby Giffords: The gun control movement's human shield
- Birth control makes women unattractive and crazy
- Roger Stone: Clinton aide Huma Abedin 'most likely a Saudi spy'
- The solution to online 'harassment' is simple: Women should log off
Demanding that Trump rescind the Bannon appointment, the respected Southern Poverty Law Centre tweeted: "Stephen Bannon was the main driver behind Breitbart becoming a white, ethno-nationalist propaganda mill."
The Anti-Defamation League weighed in, calling it "a sad day." And the Council on American-Islamic Relations criticised Breitbart for peddling "misogynistic and racist stories targeting women, people of colour and immigrants."
In photographs of Washington's always coiffed and cuffed political class, Bannon invariably stands out as a rakish persona who might be more at home on the set of the DC political thriller House of Cards. Describing Bannon as a "legitimately sinister figure," who inspired fear in employees, former Breitbart editor Ben Shapiro wrote earlier this year: "He is a vindictive, nasty figure, infamous for verbally abusing supposed friends and threatening enemies."
Bannon was often cited as the creator of the worst moments of the Trump campaign – like the parading of women who claimed to have been abused by former President Bill Clinton just minutes before the second candidates' debate between Trump and Hillary Clinton in St Louis.
Trump's campaign manager Kelly Anne Conway rejected all criticism, telling reporters on Monday that Bannon had been "the general of this campaign," and also that he had a Harvard business degrees, was a former naval officer and was "a brilliant tactician."
Bill Kristol, the neo-conservative editor of the Weekly Standard, tweeted:
Is there precedent for such a disreputable & unstable extremist in WH senior ranks before Bannon? Sid Blumenthal? But Bannon more powerful.
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) November 14, 2016
John Weaver, a Republican strategist and adviser to Trump's rival for the GOP nomination and Ohio governor John Kasich, tweeted:
The racist, fascist extreme right is represented footsteps from the Oval Office. Be very vigilant America.
— John Weaver (@JWGOP) November 13, 2016
And rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, director of the Religious Action Centre of Reform Judaism, lashed out: "In his role as editor of the Breitbart website and as a strategist in the Trump campaign, Mr Bannon was responsible for the advancement of ideologies antithetical to our nation, including anti-Semitism, misogyny, racism and Islamophobia."
It didn't help to calm anxiety at Bannon's inner-sanctum appointment when Richard Spencer, president of the white nationalist National Policy Institute, hailed Bannon's role as Trump's most senior strategist, tweeting: "Bannon will answer directly to Trump and focus on the big picture, and not get lost in the weeds. He'll be freed up to chart Trump's macro-trajectory. The question is: Which way is the arrow pointing? It is pointing towards the #AltRight!"
The logic in Trump's first and critical appointments – of Bannon and Priebus – seemingly is an effort to appease the president elect's very different constituencies – Bannon is a thinking bomb-thrower who will be seen by the GOP base as anti-establishment; Priebus is a sophisticated Washington insider who is well placed to build bridges between Trump and the GOP establishment.
But though a Trump statement billed Bannon and Priebus as "equal partners," much was made of the fact that Bannon was mentioned first in the statement and, as observed by The Washington Post, while Priebus had merely brought in donations and helped to keep wobbly Republicans in line, while it was Bannon who had set Trump's direction and never became a critic of Trump.
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