Even Glenn Beck thinks it is “truly terrifying” that President-elect Donald Trump named Stephen Bannon chief strategist and senior counselor within his administration.
The conservative radio host and former Fox News personality appeared on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” Tuesday night to slam Bannon for his ties to the “alt-right” movement. Before joining Trump’s campaign in August, Bannon was executive chairman of ultra conservative website Breitbart News.
“He has given a voice and power to that group of people,” Beck, who founded TheBlaze, told Cooper. “You don’t empower people like that. You just don’t. It’s not smart.”
Bannon is under fire for giving a voice to white nationalists when he was in charge of Breitbart News, which is considered by many to be a platform of the alt-right movement. Beck called members of the political movement “spooky guys,” and said “no responsible person” would give them a voice on a large platform.
He went on to explain that the word “racism” is used too often these days, and he does not believe Trump is a racist.
“The word racism… has been thrown around and so much to good, decent people who are not racist. They’re just not,” Beck said. “When you throw a word around like that all the time, then you begin to dismiss the actual racists.”
He alluded to the fact that most Trump supporters aren’t racist, but the alt-right is, in fact, racist.
Beck said, “We have to have a discussion aside from politics about this small group of people and how this European and really pro-Russian nationalism is seeping into our country.”
Watch the video above.