Substituting for allegedly right-leaning columnist David Brooks on Friday's PBS NewsHour, Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin repeated a smear from the left against Breitbart News linking the conservative group and its former executive chairman, Steve Bannon, to "very anti-Semitic and anti-minority" sentiments as she responded negatively to Donald Trump's choice of Bannon as his new campaign CEO.
As she recalled several weaknesses in Trump's campaign that the GOP candidate's staffing shakeup might remedy, Rubin concluded by pouring cold water on the new arrangement that also involves the inclusion of GOP pollster Kellyanne Conway. Rubin:
Donald Trump throws people out and he pairs people together. Kellyanne Conway is a very polished, very buttoned down pollster -- not a campaign chief, but a pollster -- matching with this fellow who ran not just a right-wing website, but one that really made its money and attracted a very anti-Semitic, anti-minority clique called the "alt-right."
She added: "These two people are supposed to work together in some cohesive campaign? I don't see it."
In spite of Breitbart News having a pro-Israel history which champions the defense of the Jewish state from the dangers of radical Islam, Rubin presumably picked up on a recent attack not only from the Hillary Clinton campaign but also from the far-left Ha'aretz publication which, despite being stationed in Israel, has a history of criticizing the Jewish state and its treatment of Palestinian Arabs.
Ha'aretz dubiously cited as evidence an article by Jewish conservative activist David Horowitz which bitingly accused fellow Jewish conservative William Kristol of being a "renegade" who was endangering fellow Jews by refusing to support Trump, and thus aiding Clinton -- viewed by Horowitz as promoting policies dangerous for Israel. Therefore, Horowitz, rather than making an anti-Semitic attack, was actually making an accusation of abandoning Jewish interests.
Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Friday, August 19, PBS NewsHour:
I think several strands of the campaign came together all at once. One is this very odd relationship -- maybe not even a relationship -- that Donald Trump has with Vladimir Putin, and the number of advisors around him who are overtly pro-Russian and who have made money in Russia. So that's one strand.
The next strand is, there's no campaign. As you were saying, there's no one really running the store. There is something more to a campaign than the candidate showing up and giving a speech. There's ad buys, there's ground game, there's all sorts of elements. And I see none of that. And, apparently, Mr. Manafort didn't do that. Maybe he tried, and Donald didn't let him. Maybe he didn't know how to do that. So that's a second strand.
A third is, he's behind. And the national polls I think underestimate the trouble he's in. He is trailing in virtually every poll in every battleground. And now we have new battleground states that are called Georgia and Arizona, which is unheard of. So that's another strand that kind of came together this week.
And I think the last thing is: How is this new mix going to work? Donald Trump throws people out and he pairs people together. Kellyanne Conway is a very polished, very buttoned down pollster -- not a campaign chief, but a pollster -- matching with this fellow who ran not just a right-wing website, but one that really made its money and attracted a very anti-Semitic, anti-minority clique called the "alt-right." These two people are supposed to work together in some cohesive campaign? I don't see it.
