I have to connect these disturbing dots for you.
Steve Bannon was recently appointed as Chief Strategist for President-elect Donald Trump. It was simply a promotion for Bannon, who served as CEO of Trump's presidential campaign.
Bannon, though, was not an experienced political strategist. He was the head of Breitbart News. Just a few months ago, he openly bragged that under his leadership he transformed Breitbart into "the platform of the alt-right movement." Those are his words — not from some distant past, but from this past July.
I've said it many times, but the alt-right movement is simply the KKK without the hoods. They are skinheads with suits and ties. They simply chose a new name, but are fueled by the same hate and the same philosophy as previous white supremacist and Neo-Nazi movements.
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This weekend, it all came to a full boil. Richard Spencer, who coined the term "alt-right" and is seen as one of its founders and public intellectuals, openly wore his Neo-Nazi heart on his sleeve.
Steve Bannon was recently appointed as Chief Strategist for President-elect Donald Trump.
(Evan Vucci/AP)I can hardly believe what I am about to quote.
At an Alt-Right conference being held, of all places, in a federal building in Washington D.C., Spencer didn't even attempt to hide his bigotry and anti-Semitism.
According to the NY Times, He railed against Jews and, with a smile, quoted Nazi propaganda in the original German. America, he said, belonged to white people, whom he called the "children of the sun," a race of conquerors and creators who had been marginalized but now, in the era of President-elect Donald J. Trump, were "awakening to their own identity."
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As he finished, several audience members had their arms outstretched in a Nazi salute. When Mr. Spencer, or perhaps another person standing near him at the front of the room — it was not clear who — shouted, "Heil the people! Heil victory," the room shouted it back.
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Yeah, that really happened.
The movement that the incoming Chief Strategist of the White House brazenly built an online home for is openly quoting Nazi propaganda in German in federal buildings and giving each other Nazi salutes. Not in the 1930s, but this weekend.
We simply aren't being clear enough.
When you build, fund, and promote the online home for the modern-day Neo-Nazi movement, and openly brag that you have done so, that makes you a supporter and enabler of Neo-Nazis. If someone built, funded, promoted, and openly admitted to creating the online home for the latest iteration of ISIS, you know what they'd be called? Terrorists. Doing any such thing for the latest version of ISIS would likely get someone jailed, but doing it for modern day Neo-Nazis has gotten Steve Bannon access to the highest levels of government.
President-elect Donald Trump (c.) and Vice President-elect Mike Pence (l.) exit after meeting with Jonathan Gray at Trump International Golf Club in Bedminster Township, N.J.
(PETER FOLEY/EPA)One does not have to do a Nazi salute in public to be a Neo-Nazi, but let's be clear — Steve Bannon is at least an ally of Neo-Nazis. The man Donald Trump has appointed as his Chief Strategist has worked for years to not only normalize the alt-right movement, but to give it a home and that movement is fundamentally bigoted. Unless you are willfully ignorant, such a thing is not in question.
His own former employees have openly said that Breitbart News, under Bannon's leadership, has openly embraced bigotry, white supremacy and anti-Semitism.
Bannon's ex-wife, before any of us had ever heard his name, said that he was anti-Semitic.
As a compliment, Andrew Breitbart, the founder of Breitbart News, openly called Bannon the "Leni Riefenstahl of the Tea Party movement." Leni Riefenstahl was a famous Nazi filmmaker and propagandist. She worked directly with Adolf Hitler. Such a "compliment" blows my mind. No man who has openly received such a compliment should ever be in the Oval Office.
Richard Spencer has been one of the leading voices of the alt-right movement.
(The Washington Post/The Washington Post/Getty Images)How much clearer can it get?
Stop normalizing this man. Stop calling him a hardcore conservative. He's much, much worse than that. He is being openly celebrated and adored by hate groups because they see him as one of them. They seem him as one of them because he is. Steve Bannon is a bigot. He has created a home for bigots and anti-Semites. His own boss complimented him by comparing him to a Nazi propagandist.
All of this comes as New York City experienced a staggering 31% increase in hate crimes in our city. Of course our police chief does not want to say, "Donald Trump caused this," but such a steep increase in hate comes from somewhere. Donald Trump and Steve Bannon are empowering and emboldening these elements in our country.
With every day that passes, our nation grows deeper in shame for who and what it has allowed to get this far. Mind you, all of this was known and widely shared about Steve Bannon before the election.
Protesters against U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's Chief Strategist Steve Bannon gather and chant outside the 2016 Zionist Organization of America Annual Dinner in New York.
(Bryan R. Smith/EPA)We live in a time where a man who empowers Neo-Nazis will be crafting policies and strategies in the highest, most important office in the land.
This is not a joke. This is not an exaggeration.
This is America. 2016.