ADL: No Anti-Semitic Statements from Trump's Top Strategist
The liberal Anti-Defamation League is now backing off from its earlier allegations that incoming Trump Chief White House Strategist Stephen K. Bannon is an anti-Semite.
The ADL is now saying that it is “not aware of any anti-Semitic statements made by Bannon himself.”
Earlier this week, ADL President Jonathan Greenblat, a former Obama administration aide, blasted President-elect Donald Trump for appointing Bannon as his top strategist. Greenblatt accused Bannon of presiding over “the premier website of the Alt-Right, a loose-knit group of white nationalists and unabashed anti-Semites and racists.”
What is the truth, and why this negative response to Bannon? Watch the interview clips with Aaron Klein to hear a perspective from someone who knows Bannon well and debunks the accusations against the conservative strategist.
The former CEO of Breibart News, Bannon served as Trump’s campaign chairman and holds an MBA from Harvard University and an MA from Georgetown University. He worked as an investment banker with Goldman Sachs, and served as special assistant to the Chief of Naval Operations at the Pentagon.
Conservative author David Horowitz and political commentator Pamela Geller—both Jews—wrote columns defending Bannon. Jewish employees of Breibart News and others have also come to Bannon’s defense.
Among them is Aaron Klein, Jerusalem Bureau Chief for Breitbart News. Klein told CBN News by phone that Bannon recruited him about a year ago to start Breitbart Jerusalem for the specific purpose of “shining a light of accuracy on the Middle East and specifically on Israel and the Israel-Palestinian conflict because the news media has been distorting so many news stories and spinning them against the Jewish state.”
Klein says Bannon is a lover of Israel and a champion of the United States and Israel. He calls the ADL allegations an “Alice through the looking glass inversion of reality because it is the exact opposite of the truth.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) also criticized Trump’s appointment of Bannon as his White House chief strategist. CAIR called him an Islamophobe who has “instigated fear and loathing of Muslims in America.”
Klein tells what's really behind the accusations against his former boss, Stephen K. Bannon:
About The Author
Mr. Lane served as International News Director and Senior International Correspondent for CBN News. He traveled to more than 120 countries—many of them restricted nations or areas hostile to Christianity and other minority faiths where he has interviewed persecution victims and provided video reports and analysis for CBN News. Also, he provided written stories and served as a consultant for the Voice of the Martyrs.
Gary joined The Christian Broadcasting Network in 1984 as the first full-time Middle East Correspondent for CBN News. Based in Jerusalem, Gary produced reports from Beirut on the Lebanese civil war. He was reassigned to Washington, D.C., at the start of President Reagan’s second term and served as National Security Correspondent from the U.S. State Department, Pentagon, Capitol Hill, and the White House.
Gary left CBN briefly in 1988 to work as Senior Press Secretary for Pat Robertson’s presidential campaign. Afterward, he returned to Washington and served as Washington Bureau Chief for CBN News from 1989-1992.
Gary transferred to CBN headquarters in Virginia Beach in 1996, where he began more extensive international traveling and reporting as a Senior Correspondent.
In addition to his extensive reporting on Christian persecution, Gary is also known for his reporting on the civil war in Sudan. He made 20 trips to the country since 1993 and also testified before Congress about the plight of Burmese refugees.
Gary produced numerous documentaries, including Americans Abandoned for the American Defense Institute, which afforded him the opportunity to become the first American journalist granted access to the Vietnamese Defense and Cultural Film archives. The investigative film about American POWs featured Vietnam War footage never seen before by Americans.
Gary also produced several persecution documentaries, including one about Christians in Egypt for Freedom House—Their Blood Cries Out—and another about attacks in Indonesia for The Voice of the Martyrs—Island Jihad. He also worked as a production consultant and videographer for the VOM video specials Underground Reality Vietnam and Underground Reality Colombia.
Over the years, Gary covered wars in Lebanon, Israel, Nicaragua, Angola, Burma, Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Colombia, Libya, and Syria. He won several awards, including one from the National Gulf War Resource Center for his groundbreaking investigative reporting of Gulf War Illness, an affliction affecting veterans of Operation Desert Storm. The Australian Evangelical Press Association gave him an award for his reporting of a church massacre that occurred in Bahawalpur, Pakistan, shortly after 9-11.
Gary left CBN in 2000 to join the Voice of The Martyrs as their News Director, where he directed the mission’s multimedia efforts. Those included the website, monthly newsletter, video productions, publications, press releases, and media interviews.
Gary rejoined CBN in late 2003 as International News Director/Senior Correspondent. He served as executive producer of three weekly international news programs: Christian World News (CWN); Mundo Cristiano, a Spanish version of CWN produced in Costa Rica; and an Arabic language version of CWN, CWN Arabic, which was broadcast throughout North Africa and the Middle East. He also hosted and produced the weekly CBN News Channel program, The Global Lane.
Prior to CBN, Gary worked for various local television stations in Michigan, including one owned by Time Inc. and another by Knight-Ridder. Before that, he worked at local radio stations in Flint and Detroit.
Gary is a 1979 honors graduate of The University of Michigan, Flint, where he served as political editor of The University News, studied pre-law, and received an A.B. in political science and history.
