Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon will headline the annual New Yorker festival this year, according to a Monday New York Times report.
Editor David Remnick defended his decision to the Times.
“I have every intention of asking him difficult questions and engaging in a serious and even combative conversation,” he said. “The audience itself, by its presence, puts a certain pressure on a conversation that an interview alone doesn’t do. You can’t jump on and off the record.”
Some observers aren’t buying it, and argue that Bannon’s lack of role in the White House and demonstrated comfort espousing racist, anti-Semitic and xenophobic perspectives through his old website, Breitbart, make him an unacceptable guest who is being given an extremely large platform.
