Chief Strategist Steve Bannon's Right Wing Nationalist Associations

In the November 14 NY Times​​​, Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway denied that chief strategist Steve Bannon had a connection to right wing nationalists, or that he would bring those views into the Trump White House. Conway's protestations were as believable as Newt Gingrich, who asserted at about the same time that Bannon could not hold anti-Semitic views because he had worked at Goldman Sachs and in Hollywood.

Earlier this year the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) revealed that Conway and Bannon were both members of the  Council for National Policy, an association of conservatives so secretive that members may not divulge their membership or even the name of the group. Records from 2014 obtained by SPLC listed Conway as a member of the executive committee and Bannon as a regular member. Also listed were a number of known extremists, including:

• Michael Peroutka -  The 2004 Constitution Party candidate for president. Peroutka was also endorsed by the America First Party and for years was on the board of the white supremacist League of the South.
• Jerome Corsi - Noted Obama "birther," and the man largely responsible for the "swift boating" of John Kerry.
• Joseph Farah - Runs the fringe so-called news operation WorldNetDaily.
• Mat Staver - founder of the Liberty Counsel law firm, which has worked to criminalize gay sex.
• Philip Zodhaites - Anti-gay activist who is charged with helping a self-described former lesbian who kidnaped her daughter and fled to Canada. 

SPLC previously characterized Bannon's  web site, Breitbart.com, as "the media arm of the 'Alt-Right'," citing article titles appearing during his tenure: “Bill Kristol: Republican Spoiler, Renegade Jew,” “There’s No Hiring Bias Against Women in Tech, They Just Suck at Interviews,” “Birth Control Makes Women Unattractive and Crazy,” “Lesbian Bridezillas Bully Bridal Shop Owner Over Religious Beliefs," among others.

"Alt-Right," a euphemism for white nationalism and white supremacism, itself came under scrutiny by the Associated Press standards maven, John Daniszewski, who wrote recently:

... [W]henever “alt-right” is used in a story, be sure to include a definition: “an offshoot of conservatism mixing racism, white nationalism and populism,” or, more simply, “a white nationalist movement.”
 
...[W]hen writing on extreme groups, be precise and provide evidence to support the characterization.
 
We should not limit ourselves to letting such groups define themselves, and instead should report their actions, associations, history and positions to reveal their actual beliefs and philosophy, as well as how others see them.

On December 2, a group of Holocaust survivors and descendants wrote an open letter to Donald Trump, drawing parallels between his implicit acceptance of Bannon's anti-semitism, and  conditions that led to the Holocaust. "We know what our parents and grandparents lived through," they wrote. "It was a time when virulent anti-Semitism was accepted. That bigotry was allowed to spread, unchecked, and systematic genocide ensued."