In this August 20, 2016, photo, Stephen Bannon, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign chairman, attends Trump’s Hispanic advisory roundtable meeting in NY. The new head honcho, Steve Bannon, has a history of anti-semitism, according to a 2007 court document that has recently resurfaced.
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In court filings related to their divorce agreement, Bannon’s former wife, Mary Louise Piccard, said he objected to their daughters attending a Los Angeles prep school because of the large number of Jewish students there, The Associated Press and other outlets report. Bannon was also revealed to have said that Jewish children are “whiney brats” and that he did not want his daughters going to school alongside them because they were Jewish.
When visiting another school, Ms Piccard said Mr Bannon asked the director why there were so many Hanukkah books in the library.
Bannon hasn’t responded to the domestic abuse and voter fraud allegations, but he’s denying the anti-semitic remarks.
“At the time, Mr. Bannon never said anything like that and proudly sent the girls to Archer for their middle school and high school educations”, Preate said in a statement.
As the campaign enters its crucial final months, Mr Trump has made, albeit haphazard, efforts to appeal to America’s ethnic minority vote. Now, instead of living in the peaceful, protective obscurity of alt-right news, he has risen to national prominence and, like former campaign chair Paul Manafort, is undergoing the scrutiny that comes along with such a prestigious role.
Although some might discount Piccard’s allegations against Bannon as “he said, she said”, the bigger question seems to be how Trump could have hired someone with these types of red flags on his record. Bannon was charged with three misdemeanors, which later were dismissed when his wife didn’t show up at trial. In the police report, the then-wife claimed that during an argument on New Year’s Day about finances, she spat at Bannon and he “reached up to her from the driver’s seat of his auto and grabbed her left wrist”.
Trump’s hiring of Bannon, chair of Breitbart News, has been widely criticized.
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And Paul Manafort resigned last week as campaign chairman after several of his controversial ties to Russian Federation surfaced.
