Hillary Clinton's campaign manager Robby Mook slammed Donald Trump on Wednesday for hiring Breitbart News executive chairman Stephen Bannon as chief executive of his election effort.
He said the former Wall Street banker operates a "so-called news site that peddles divisive, at times, racist, anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories."
"After several failed attempts to pivot into a more serious and presidential mode, Donald Trump has decided to double down on his most small, nasty and divisive instincts by turning his campaign over to someone who’s best known for running a so-called news site that peddles divisive, at times, racist, anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories," Mook told reporters in a conference call, Politico reports.
"What’s become clear from this is that no matter how much the establishment wants to clean Donald Trump up, get him on a teleprompter and get him on message, he has officially won the fight to let Trump be Trump.
"And he keeps telling us who he is," he added. "It’s time we believe him."
Trump installed Bannon, who worked at Goldman, was named chief executive — effectively supplanting chairman Paul Manafort — and pollster Kellyanne Conway was promoted to campaign manager.
Conway had been a top Trump adviser since July.
In blasting the changes, Mook cited a report by the Southern Poverty Law Center on Breitbart under Bannon.
He told reporters the news site "has undergone a noticeable shift toward embracing ideas on the extremist fringe of the conservative right.
"Racist ideas," Mook continued. "Anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant ideas — all key tenets making up an emerging racist ideology known as the 'alt-right.'"
He then said "the Breitbart organization has been known to defend white supremacists, like Trump, who has refused to apologize to Gold Star father Khizr Khan.
"Bannon himself has said that he would keep 'relentlessly going after Khan,'" Mook added, according to the report.
Breitbart also has "compared the work of Planned Parenthood to the Holocaust" and has "repeatedly used anti-LGBT slurs in their coverage," he said.
In addition, both Trump and Bannon have "trafficked in deranged conspiracy theories" — including raising questions about President Barack Obama's birthplace and contending that the White House was "importing more hating Muslims," the campaign manager added.
"So, it's unfortunately not surprising to see this happen, coming from Trump after weeks of stories about his need to pivot . . . to a more serious campaign, it’s clear that his divisive, erratic and dangerous rhetoric simply represents who he really is," Mook told reporters, according to Politico. "And he has decided to double down on his most divisive, hateful, erratic statements and behavior."
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