Reince Priebus Attempts to Normalize White Nationalist Stephen Bannon

“He is very, very temperate.”

In his first interviews since being named the incoming White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus took to the morning news shows on Monday to defend the appointment of Stephen Bannon, the executive chairman of alt-right media organization Breitbart News, as Trump’s chief strategist and senior counsel.

“The guy I know is a guy sitting in an office all day yesterday talking about hiring, talking about people,” Priebus said on the Today Show. “Here’s a guy who is Harvard Business School, he was a ten-year naval officer, London School of Economics, I believe. He is a guy who is very, very smart, very temperate.”

When asked about some of the race-baiting stories that have run on Breitbart, including one that stoked fears of Muslims and another that ran with an anti-Semitic attack on Bill Kristol, Priebus replied, “That wasn’t his writing, that was some articles on Breitbart. That wasn’t him.”

Over on MSNBC, the Republican National Committee chair once more pointed to Bannon’s Harvard Business School education to diminish concerns about his role in leading a white nationalist movement and normalize the appointment. He described Bannon as “generous” and “hospitable.”

For a closer look at Bannon’s assistance in shaping a campaign that included racism and misogyny, head to our deep-dive here.

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

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So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

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