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JTA: Steve Bannon has opinions about ‘Jewish Palm Beach matrons’

December 21, 2017

Steve Bannon had some choice words for Palm Beach Jewish women who support Donald Trump.

In an interview with Vanity Fair published on Thursday, the former White House adviser and current head of Breitbart News described the reception he expected to get in the tony Florida enclave in November, when he attended Restoration Weekend — an annual gathering of right-wing thinkers hosted by leftist-turned-conservative David Horowitz.

“The thing about Restoration Weekend,” Bannon tells author Gabriel Sherman, “is you got a lot of Jewish Palm Beach matrons who used to be superhot. They were all left-wing in the 60s. That was before they locked down successful Palm Beach business guys. Now they’re hardcore. You half expect them to throw their panties at Horowitz. They’re all Trump people.”

The comment is sure to fuel more accusations that Breitbart is anti-Semitic — accusations that stem from Breitbart’s hyper-nationalist, anti-“globalist” worldview and an allegation by his ex-wife, denied by Bannon, that he didn’t want their twin daughters to attend a private school with a large Jewish population.

Bannon’s defenders, including the Zionist Organization of America, point to Breitbart’s strongly pro-Israel stance and Bannon’s assertions that anti-Semitism has no place in his version of the “alt-right” movement.