On Monday, responding to the news that The New Yorker Festival had scheduled an interview with Stephen K. Bannon, President Trump’s former chief strategist, during its October 5-7 event, and The Economist had also invited Bannon to participate in its Open Future Festival on September 15, Chelsea Clinton weighed in, accusing the festivals of a “normalization of bigotry.”
Stanley Pignal of The Economist tried to defend the decision to host Bannon:
Chelsea Clinton replied:
Ms. Clinton apparently has an unusually short memory. Just last week her own father, former President Bill Clinton, sat next to three men who have all infamously espoused racism:
The trio seated next to Clinton included Jesse Jackson, who displayed his anti-Semitism by referring to Jews as “Hymies” and New York City as “Hymietown” in 1984; Al Sharpton, who has referred to “Greek homos” and led a march in which marchers yelled, “Kill the Jews,” and Louis Farrakhan, whose vicious racism against whites and Jews has been amply documented.
Clinton’s utter cluelessness was called out on Twitter, even by a reporter from normally Clinton-friendly CNN, who reacted instinctively:
Leftists reamed Bennett on Twitter. Meanwhile, after Clinton archly responded to her tweet, she backed down:
Others didn’t back down:
It was pretty clear what kind of company Bill Clinton was keeping: