Representative Hakeem Jeffries showed little restraint in calling out of White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon when he appear on MSNBC Friday.
The New York Democrat joined host Katy Tur to discuss the Congressional Black Caucus’s relationship with President Trump since his inauguration. Jeffries expressed a desire for he and his colleagues in the CBC to meet with the President.
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“There’s a whole host of issues we’d like to discuss with him,” Jeffries said. “We’re looking forward to an open dialogue,” he added later.
While discussing this potential summit, however, Jeffries was emphatic on one point: “Steve Bannon, however, should not be in the room.”
When Tur inquired as to why not, Jeffries did not hold back. “Well listen, he’s a stone cold racist and a white supremacist sympathizer,” he told her. “It’d be hard for me to participate in any meeting with Steve Bannon.”
Echoing the rhetoric that has widely dogged Bannon since his hiring by President Trump, Jeffries added that he feared “normalizing his presence in the White House.”