Former Breitbart Employee: “Dangerous And Divisive” Breitbart News Will Be The “Propaganda Arm" Of Trump's White House

Kurt Bardella: “For The Next Four Years," The Free Press "Is Going To Come Under Assault Every Minute Of Every Day Directly By The President”

From the November 14 edition of CNN's New Day:

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CHRIS CUOMO (HOST): Kurt Bardella, there are words being used to describe [Stephen] Bannon, that he represents the Republican fringe. I would say that that's untrue. There are many Republicans, in fact, there are a few who want to own Steve Bannon and his politics, and that what comes out of Breitbart often plays on what's called tropes by the media. I would argue they are not tropes. These are often at least deceptive and often hateful headlines to drive separation in our society. You worked for them. Why? And what did you learn when you were there? 

KURT BARDELLA: Well, you know, I think that they represent a worldview that is incredibly dangerous and divisive and to have this kind of proximity to the White House -- I mean, Breitbart's gone from being the propaganda arm of the Trump campaign to now being the propaganda arm of the federal government, essentially, in a Trump White House. And I think that should be very concerning to all Americans right now. Because any day that you look at their site, one, it is about one perspective, one agenda, and it's completely devoid of reality and facts. And it's all about speaking to the worst divisions amongst the American people and their worst fears to try to advance a very narrow-minded agenda that is designed to just create conflict and, in this case, to prop up their strong man, Donald Trump. 

[...]

CUOMO: By the way, look, the way you just said it is fine. People will agree, they’ll disagree. But what Breitbart does, whether they’re targeting me or they’re targeting other people in the media, is they deceive, they distort context, and they do it to advance an agenda that the media is against you and that everything is “the left” and that “the system” is the left and that this is about a race war and about white America being put down. And now you have that guy in the White House, speaking for all Americans. Is that good?

JEFFREY LORD: Chris, I mean, I just disagree totally with your picture of Steve Bannon. I read Breitbart every day. I mean, it’s conservative. You’re not going to hear much difference out of Breitbart than you are from Rush Limbaugh.

CUOMO: You think that Rush Limbaugh would be a good guy to have as a president's top strategist? With him spending all of his time trying to divide this country?

LORD: Well, Chris, Chris, here's the trick that the left always plays and you just, my friend, played it, is that you guys divide Americans all the time. The Obama administration and the American left divide people by race. And then they pretend that it's all normal. It's not normal. 

[CROSSTALK]

CUOMO: Jeffrey, I got your point. Kurt, make your point because I didn’t understand it. What did you say?

JEFFREY LORD: Well, Chris, Chris, here's the trick that the left always plays and you just, my friend, played it. You guys divide Americans all the time. The Obama administration and the American left divide people by race. And then they pretend that it's all normal. It's not normal. 

BARDELLA: You talk about divisiveness. The divisiveness comes from people like Jeffrey who go on TV every single day and flat out lie to the American people and are completely devoid of what's actually happening and what’s real. I'll tell you what is really happening. The first thing Donald Trump does basically is go on Twitter and advance a lie about The New York Times and their subscription rates with no fact. It turns out to be untrue. We're never going to hear him back down and say, you know what, I got that wrong, I shouldn’t have done it. What about the fact that the president, one of the first things he wants to do is attack the media,  attack the free press. That is one of the most dangerous things happening right now, is that for the next four years, free press is going to be under assault, under attack, and that's all that they're going to do, and that should be  incredibly worrisome to anybody who cares about the fabric of this country that one of the fundamental tenets that our nation was built upon, the ability to have a free press, an interactive press that can ask the questions on behalf of the American people and report the truth, that that is going to come under assault  every minute of every day directly by the president.

Previously:

A White Nationalist Who Hates Jews Will Be Trump's Right-Hand Man In The White House

The Complete History Of Donald Trump's Relationship With The White Nationalist Movement

The Guide To Donald Trump's War On The Press (So Far)