Congressional Black Caucus member Rep. Hakeem Jeffries has called presidential assistant Steve Bannon a “stone-cold racist.” Jeffries offered that description during an interview with Katy Tur on her MSNBC show yesterday in explaining why it would be “hard” for him to attend a meeting between President Trump and the CBC if Bannon were present.
Joy Reid played the Jeffries clip on her MSNBC show this morning during a discussion of a possible meeting between the president and the CBC. April Ryan, the reporter that President Trump had requested, at this week’s press conference, to set up a meeting with the CBC, was a guest on Reid’s show.
Ryan—who declined the president’s request to set up the meeting—reported that she had spoken with CBC Chairman Cedric Richmond, who told her that shortly after the press conference the White House had reached out to the CBC to set up a meeting and that the details of date and time were being worked out.
Note: Ryan also reported that she was not aware of any CBC member other than Jeffries who would boycott the meeting if Bannon were present.
Note Segundo: for good measure, Jeffries also called Bannon a “white supremacist sympathizer.”
JOY REID: Let me let you hear what one member of congress had to say. Hakeem Jeffries: he spoke to our own Katy Tur. And he was talking actually about your press conference but this was him talking not just about Trump but about his team. Take a listen.KATY TUR: What do you make of him asking April Ryan to set up that meeting?HAKEEM JEFFRIES: It was very strange, but he’s done a lot of very strange things over the last 28 days. And hopefully some of his advisors have informed him, one that a letter has already been sent to him and that we’re looking forward to an open dialogue. Steve Bannon, however, should not be in the room.TUR: Why not?JEFFRIES: Well listen: he’s a stone-cold racist and a white-supremacist sympathizer. It would be hard for me to participate in any meeting in which Steve Bannon, that normalizes his presence in the White House. Beyond that, we’ll have to see.REID: So April, just from your reporting, are there more members of the CBC who are saying if they get their meeting they don’t want Steve Bannon in the room? That’s part A of my question, and part B, do you have the sense that because people like Bannon are around Donald Trump, that’s reinforcing this sort of view of black people as just a stereotype?APRIL RYAN: Well, I haven’t heard anyone else beyond Congressman Hakeem Jeffries say that, but I’ve also heard from Cedrid Richmond, who is the head of the CBC– who says he will have, they are going to have this meeting because the White House did reach out to them not long after that press conference Thursday. And they’re trying to pinpoint a date and time.]
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