Big-five-Bob.HI-Cong-GabbyWesley.Jeff-Smith.Sen-Jeff-Merkley

Longtime friend of the ILWU, U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), right, in a previously published photo with (L-R) ILWU International President Robert McEllrath, Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), ILWU International Vice President (Hawaii) Wesley Furtado, and ILWU Local 8 member Jeff Smith. Photo by ILWU Local 40 member Dawn Des Brisay.

From KPTV:

Senator Jeff Merkley had some harsh words for President-elect Donald Trump following the appointment of Steve Bannon as chief strategist and senior counselor.

“There should be no sugarcoating the truth here: Donald Trump just invited a white nationalist into the highest reaches of the government,” Merkley said in a statement Monday morning.

Bannon is the executive chairman of Breitbart News, a politically conservative website that aligns itself with the alt-right movement, which has drawn accusations of racism, white nationalism and anti-Semitism.

Merkley criticized the site’s editorial slant and called on Trump to rescind Bannon’s appointment.

“After running a campaign built on inciting divisions and hate, Donald Trump has claimed he wants to unite America. Yet he has done nothing meaningful to stop the wave of hate crimes and hate speech he has unleashed, and now has brought that strategy right into the Oval Office.

More at KPTV