Seth Meyers Goes After Trump For Appointing Steve Bannon, A Man ‘Adored By White Nationalists’

In his first segment dedicated to President-elect Donald Trump’s transition into the White House, Late Night host Seth Meyers ridiculed the Republican nominee for blowing his “fresh start.” The comedian was especially concerned with Trump’s appointment of campaign executive (and Breitbart News leader) Steve Bannon as White House chief strategist. The move angered Democrats and Republicans alike, especially for Bannon’s professional ties to Breitbart — a website “adored by white nationalists” — and his many reported personal demons. Hence why Meyers decided to take another “Closer Look” at Bannon’s appointment, as well as the supposedly troubled Trump transition, on Tuesday night.

“There already seem to be two centers of gravity in ‘Trumpworld’ right now. You’ve got incoming chief of staff and Elf on the Shelf Reince Priebus, who comes from the establishment wing, and then you have chief strategist Steve Bannon, the former executive chairman of Breitbart News — a website adored by white nationalists,” Meyers explained. “While the establishment may be relieved by the fact that Priebus is the chief of staff, history indicates he’ll probably be less powerful than Bannon.”

With a cut to a clip of MSNBC political analyst Jonathan Adler explaining things, Meyers suggests Bannon will reign over Priebus and Trump’s other staff picks just as Karl Rove did in President George W. Bush’s administration. After all, Rove served as Bush’s chief strategist while Andy Card work as his chief of staff, and television politicos and pundits reference the former far more than they do the latter.

Then again, considering rumors dubbing Trump’s transition team a political “knife fight,” or how the president-elect wants three of his adult children to receive top security clearance, everything could be a whole lot worse. For example, as the Late Night team (mostly) jokingly imagines, the eventual Trump cabinet could hold monthly “knife fights” for Trump’s amusement.

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