The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Ex-wife: Trump campaign CEO made anti-Semitic remarks
Spokeswoman denies allegation, part of 2007 filing.
LOS ANGELES — An ex-wife of Stephen Bannon, Donald Trump’s new campaign CEO, said Bannon made anti-Semitic remarks when the two battled over sending their daughters to private school nearly a decade ago, according to court papers.
That revelation came a day after reports emerged that domestic violence charges were filed 20 years ago against Bannon following an altercation with his thenwife, Mary Louise Piccard.
In a sworn court declaration following their divorce, Piccard said her ex-husband had objected to sending their twin daughters to an elite Los Angeles academy because he “didn’t want the girls going to school with Jews.”
“He said he doesn’t like Jews and that he doesn’t like the way they raise their kids to be ‘whiney brats,’” Piccard said in the 2007 court filing.
Bannon, the former head of Breitbart News, took the helm of Trump’s campaign last week in yet another leadership shake-up. The campaign has been plagued by negative stories about staffers, including charges lodged against his former campaign manager following an altercation with a reporter, and questions about his former campaign chairman’s links with Russian interests.
Alexandra Preate, a spokeswoman for Bannon, denied that he made anti-Semitic remarks about the private school.
“He never said that,” Preate said, adding that Bannon was proud to send his daughters to the school.
Trump previously has been criticized for invoking anti-Semitic stereotypes, including tweeting out an anti-Hillary Clinton image that included a Star of David atop a pile of money.
He also raised eyebrows when he spoke in front of the Republican Jewish Coalition and declared, “I’m a negotiator like you folks were negotiators.”
Clinton has tried in recent days to highlight Trump’s popularity with white nationalist and supremacist groups. She delivered a speech Thursday that linked him with the “alt-right” movement, which is often associated with efforts on the far right to preserve “white identity,” oppose multiculturalism and defend “Western values.”
Trump has pushed back, defending himself and his supporters, and labeling Clinton “a bigot” for supporting policies he argues have ravaged minority communities.
Trump has noted that his daughter, Ivanka, would soon be giving birth to a Jewish child. Ivanka Trump converted to Orthodox Judaism when she married Jared Kushner, a young real estate developer.