MARK HALPERIN (CO-HOST): Over the weekend, the next president filled the top two jobs of his innermost circle, naming the Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus as the White House chief of staff, and Steve Bannon, the former head of Breitbart and a firebrand figure associated with the alt-right movement, as his chief strategist and senior counselor. Both men are going to report directly to President Trump, and be, according to the press release, equal partners in running the administration.
[...]
HALPERIN: I think Bannon should speak -- Trump should speak about him by not addressing these issues head-on, they're allowing him to be defined in a negative way, and rightfully so. He's got a fuller resume than just his time at Breitbart, but people are alarmed by his association with Breitbart, they're doing nothing to really address it except saying Bannon's a great guy, and I think they are creating a problem that they should address head-on.
If Bannon is going to be a senior government official, he needs to be accountable, and Trump needs to explain why he is willing to overlook, which he apparently is, some of the most controversial aspects of what Breitbart has done.
JOHN HEILEMANN (CO-HOST): Well, not clear that he's overlooking them, more that he may want to embrace some of the more controversial aspects of what Breitbart has done. Look, the argument today coming out of some Republicans, which is “Well, you see these incendiary headlines at Breitbart, you can't hold Steve Bannon accountable for every headline that's been on Breitbart.”
Yeah, you can. You really can. He didn't write those stories and he didn't write those headlines, but he ran Breitbart, and proudly trumpeted the notion that Breitbart had become a home for white nationalism and the alt-right. That is a -- by most people's point of view, not everyone's, but that is a toxic force in American life, and certainly a divisive one.
So, you're picking Steve Bannon, you're sending a horrible message to large segments of this country about what kinds of attitudes and attributes you are willing to embrace close to the very most -- close to the seat of power in the Oval Office.
