President-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday that he disavowed racist elements of the “alt-right” and that his campaign was not about staring racial hatred.
In an interview with The New York Times, Mr. Trump condemned participants at an alt-right conference in Washington who celebrated his election victory with a Nazi salute.
“I disavow and condemn them,” he said.
Mr. Trump was accused throughout the campaign of being a racist and of energizing supporter who were alt-right or white supremacists.
“It’s not a group I want to energize,” he told the newspaper. “And if they are energized, I want to look into it and find out why.”
Mr. Trump also defensed his campaign chairman and newly appointed chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, who has been accused of being a racist and anti-Semite.
“If I thought he was a racist or alt-right or any of the things, the terms we could use, I wouldn’t even think about hiring him,” he said.
He said the allegations were “hard on” Mr. Bannon.
“I think he’s having a hard time with it. Because it’s not him,” Mr. Trump said.
Breitbart News, where Mr. Bannon was executive chairman before joining the Trump campaign, has been accused of providing a platform for alt-right views.
“Breitbart is just a publication,” Mr. Trump told the newspaper. “They cover stories like you cover stories. They are certainly a much more conservative paper, to put it mildly, than The New York Times. But Breitbart really is a news organization that has become quite successful.”
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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