This week has been a shocking one regarding the Trump administration’s executive orders. To defend them, the White House asked Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, White House Counsellor Kellyanne Conway, and Press Secretary Sean Spicer to go on the Sunday talk shows to defend them. Yet despite him telling the media to 'keep its mouth shut', Steve Bannon was nowhere to be seen. Talk about profiles in courage.
Indeed, it appears that Priebus/Conway/Spicer are not the prime movers on policy at the Trump White House. Steve Bannon has been upgraded to the the National Security Council by Executive Order. Steve Bannon reportedly overruled the Department of Homeland Security to deny green card holders from seven Muslim majority countries entrance to the United States in defiance of law and precedent. The White House communications team cannot even manage to say on Holocaust Remembrance Day that Jews faced genocide and condemn anti-Semitism. Yet Steve Bannon escapes even the most basic media scrutiny.
So I have a short message for the media: tell Trump’s team that if they want to appear on your show in the future they have to send you Steve Bannon. If you do not get an interview with Bannon, tell them Priebus, Conway or Spicer are insufficient. Make the request and let us know if the White House rejects it. Let us see whether the Trump White House and Steve Bannon are willing to stand by their true beliefs in public. The fact that Steve Bannon refuses to take questions, when his colleagues will is a real story.