Steve Bannon, President-elect Donald Trump's campaign CEO who was named his chief strategist this week, slammed the media attacks on him and the Breitbart News website that he has headed for the past four years as "just nonsense."
"I pride myself in doing things that matter," he told The Wall Street Journal in an interview published Friday. "What mattered in the campaign was winning. We did.
"What matters now is pulling together the single best team we can to implement President-elect Trump’s vision."
Regarding the media attacks, Bannon asked: "How can you take anything seriously from a media apparatus … that systematically missed something that was so obvious, that missed Brexit, that missed the Trump revolution?
"You’d have thought they’d have learned their lesson on November 8."
He then added, "They clearly haven’t."
In a 70-minute conversation, Bannon addressed some of the accusations leveled against him in the press, even since joining Trump's campaign in August.
These include:
- Whether he is anti-Semitic: "Breitbart is the most pro-Israel site in the United States of America," he said. "I have Breitbart Jerusalem, which I have Aaron Klein run with about 10 reporters there.
"We’ve been leaders in stopping this BDS movement" — boycott, divestment and sanctions — "in the United States; we're a leader in the reporting of young Jewish students being harassed on American campuses; we've been a leader on reporting on the terrible plight of the Jews in Europe," Bannon said.
- Whether he is a white supremacist: "I’m an economic nationalist. I am an America-first guy," he said.
"I have admired nationalist movements throughout the world, have said repeatedly strong nations make great neighbors.
"I've also said repeatedly that the ethno-nationalist movement, prominent in Europe, will change over time. I've never been a supporter of ethno-nationalism."
- His current role with Breitbart: Bannon told the Journal that he has had "nothing to do with the site since August 15," when he joined the campaign.
He now plans to take an "extended leave of absence and cut all association with the site while I'm working at the pleasure of the president."
In addition, Breitbart "didn't get a scoop from the campaign from the minute I took over," Bannon said. "They've had to scramble like everybody else."