GOP lawmaker: Bannon ‘should go’

Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) encouraged President Trump on Thursday to part ways with embattled chief strategist Stephen Bannon.

King added his GOP voice to a chorus of calls for Bannon’s firing that have mostly been from Democrats.

“I think it’s important for the president to fire Steve Bannon. He should go,” King told a New York ABC News affiliate.

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Bannon, whose critics say he helped the “alt-right” movement during his time at Breitbart News, made waves with an interview with the liberal American Prospect published Wednesday night where he said that Democrats would ensure GOP election victories if they kept highlighting discussions about race.

“The Democrats, the longer they talk about identity politics, I got ’em,” Bannon said. “I want them to talk about racism every day.”

“If the left is focused on race and identity, and we go with economic nationalism, we can crush the Democrats,” he said.

Democrats have expressed outrage over Bannon’s appointment in the White House from the start due to his ties with Breitbart. They began reiterating calls for his dismissal after the deadly violence in Charlottesville, Va., stemming from a white supremacist rally.

Trump has taken a barrage of bipartisan criticism for his remarks on Charlottesville, including saying “both sides” were at fault and included “very fine people.”

King said Bannon’s comments arguing that Republicans could benefit from racial divisions were inappropriate.

“I mean, when he said the other day where he was saying that he hopes the Democrats use race as an issue ‘cause that’s a winner for Republicans, that to me is exploiting the racial issue. That can’t be allowed,” King said.

King was also critical of Bannon for saying in the American Prospect interview that there is “no military solution” to North Korea’s nuclear threats.

“Also the fact that he is undercutting the president, the secretary of Defense, the secretary of State and the head of the National Security Council on North Korea — to me, his time in the White House should be over,” King said.

King is not the first Republican to say Bannon should be fired from the White House. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), a centrist who is retiring next year, said in April that Bannon’s “views are not in line with our country.”