The White House is using Sen. Sherrod Brown’s claim of racism in the White House to cut the legs out from his pending 2018 reelection campaign in Ohio.
On Sunday, Brown told CNN that “Steve Bannon is a white supremacist and Stephen Miller seems to be,” before switching subject to President Donald Trump’s criticism of Democratic Rep. Frederica Wilson. The CNN anchor did not question Brown’s claim of White House racism.
Bannon served as one of Trump’s top aides but is now a private citizen because he left the White House in August. Miller is one of Trump’s senior aides in the White House and handles Trump’s popular immigration policies.
Following the interview, the White House released a statement from press secretary Sarah Sanders:
Please see the following WH response to Sen. Brown’s slanderous comments about White House staffer, Stephen Miller.
“Senator Brown’s comments are outrageous and slanderous. The nonstop name calling from the left continues to show an inability to build consensus and fix the problems ailing hardworking Americans. Senator Brown needs to understand that when he calls out public servants who are part of the Trump Administration, he is indicting the voters in Ohio themselves who overwhelmingly voted for the President’s agenda. Instead of performing theatre for the extreme left fringe, his time would be better spent fighting for everyday people by supporting the Trump Agenda of pro-worker trade and immigration policies that will raise wages and living standards for all Americans.”
Brown is facing the voters in 2018, after winning his 2012 race with just 50.7 percent of the vote. In 2014, Brown voted for New York Sen. Chuck Schumer’s amnesty-and-cheap-labor “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” bill.
In November 2016, Trump won the state with 51.7 percent of the vote, four percentage points above the performance of the 2012 GOP nominee, former Gov. Mitt Romney.
During the campaign, Miller often served as a warm-up speaker, including at an October 2016 rally in Youngstown, Pa.