ABC News(NEW YORK) — President-elect Donald Trump’s new chief of staff, Reince Priebus, today defended incoming White House strategist Steve Bannon against accusations that he sympathizes with white supremacists by asking the public to give him a chance, saying “this is a very, very smart person.”
“I don’t know where they’re coming from,” he told Good Morning America of the critics.
“That’s not the Steve Bannon that I know.”
The strongest criticism of Trump’s selection of Bannon, the executive chairman of the “alt-right”-favored website Breitbart.com, has come from retiring Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an international Jewish non-governmental organization based in the United States.
“President-elect Trump’s choice of Steve Bannon as his top aide signals that white supremacists will be represented at the highest levels in Trump’s White House,” Reid spokesman Adam Jentleson said in a statement Sunday.
The ADL opposes the appointment of Bannon because the alt-right movement, which Bannon is sometimes credited with fostering, is “so hostile to core American values,” CEO Jonathan Greenblat said in a statement to the media.
“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 anti-Semites and racists – is slated to be a senior staff member in the ‘people’s house,'” Greenblat’s statement read.
But Priebus said that based on his experience, such categorizations of his colleague were unfounded.
He went on to say that he found Bannon, in person, to be “the opposite,” but didn’t clarify what opinion Bannon voiced in private that countered these descriptions of him. He recommended that Americans give Bannon time to prove his character.
“Look at the person. Get to know the person. This is a very, very smart person,” he said.
Priebus also discussed other subjects this morning, including President-elect Trump’s priorities in the early stages of his leadership. He listed “getting his arms around foreign policy,” along with planning for changes to the Affordable Care Act, and looking at tax reform as the most important things on his agenda.
Priebus didn’t mention immigration this morning, but in a 60 Minutes interview that aired Sunday, Trump said he planned to immediately deport 2 million to 3 million undocumented immigrants who “have criminal records” after his inauguration next January.
The incoming chief of staff also addressed the fact that Trump’s losing opponent, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, won the popular vote, and suggested that it wasn’t the Republican Party’s concern.
He said Trump put his resources into the states that would get him elected, and declined to campaign in highly populated states like New York, and California, which he said could have bolstered his numbers there.
“This is an election that takes place in about 12 states,” Priebus said. “He played the states he wanted to play.”
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