Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., is leading a progressive charge against President-elect Donald Trump’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon, seeking to ratchet up the pressure to stop him from becoming Trump’s White House counselor.
He and a coalition of some three-score progressive, religious and ethnic organizations are protesting Bannon’s appointment as chief White House strategist and senior counsel in the Trump administration. They delivered petitions with more than 1 million signatures to lawmakers on Capitol Hill Thursday demanding Bannon’s removal from Trumps White House-in-waiting and calling on congressional leaders to force Trump’s hand.
“We all hoped … we would see a transformation as [Trump] assumed the mantle of leadership,” Merkley said, standing in front of boxes and boxes of petitions. “And the first dark sign of the storm to come was in the form of the announcement that Steve Bannon would be his chief strategist,” Merkley said about the former Breitbart News CEO.
“Stephen Bannon is a white supremacist, an anti-Semite, a misogynist and domestic abuser — but Donald Trump just made him one of the most influential people inside the White House,” UltraViolet Action’s Shaunna Thomas said in front of the Capitol Thursday.
“Trump’s appointment of Bannon has white supremacist groups celebrating because it confirms he intends to follow through on his hateful, xenophobic, racist, misogynist, campaign rhetoric,” added Demand Progress’s Kate Kizer.
The groups combined their various petitions for delivery but all demanded the same thing — Bannon’s removal.
“Sign the petition to call on President-elect Trump to remove Steve Bannon from his administration and stop giving white supremacy a presidential platform,” reads NARAL Pro-Choice America’s petition.
“Members of Congress must stop Donald Trump’s appointment of Steve Bannon as a White House chief strategist and senior counsel,” reads MoveOn.org’s. “There is no place for a white supremacist, anti-Semitic misogynist in the White House.”
Among the other varied groups that gathered signatures and are pushing for Bannon’s removal are African American Ministers In Action, J Street, the Anti-Defamation League, Friends of the Earth and Asian Americans Advancing Justice.
