Sherrod Brown

Sen. Sherrod Brown, shown here speaking at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, says President-elect Donald Trump should dump Stephen Bannon as a senior adviser.

(J. Scott Applewhite, Associated Press)

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Several Democratic officeholders, including U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, want President-elect Donald Trump to change his mind about putting former Breitbart News chairman Stephen Bannon in a senior position at the White House.

Bannon, whom Trump named as chief strategist, "must be removed from his position immediately," Brown said in a statement Tuesday.

Bannon has become known for incendiary statements and racist and anti-Semitic articles published under his watch. Breitbart News, with its broad conservative audience, has stoked extreme elements.

Bannon boasted in July that Breitbart News was the platform for the alt-right. And the alt-right, "as we know, is simply a rebranding of white nationalism and is the energy behind the avalanche of racist and anti-Semitic harassment that plagued social media platforms for the entire presidential campaign," Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, said this week.

Bannon, a former Navy officer with a Georgetown University and Harvard Business School education, dedicated himself this summer to helping Trump win the presidential election, taking over as campaign manager.

Civil Rights groups and the Anti-Defamation League have already criticized Trump's selection of the Bannon in the White House, as have a host of others.

Elizabeth Warren alleges Trump's pick of Steve Bannon shows "this is a

White House that will embrace bigotry." https://t.co/eNh5eNswsc 🔓 — The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) November 15, 2016

"We cannot bring the country together by inviting into the White House the same bigotry and hate speech that divided us on the campaign trail," Brown, Ohio's senior-most Democrat in politics and government, said in a statement today.

Controversial past:

Bannon is known as a brilliant strategist willing to appeal to extremes and stereotypes:

In 2011, speaking of Sarah Palin, Ann Coulter and other women appealing to conservatives,

In 2012,

Under his leadership, Breitbart published stories on how

In a nasty divorce, his ex-wife accused him of not wanting his daughters to attend a particular school because of the number of Jews there, a claim he disputes.

Plenty of critics, but supporters, too:

Brown joins other Democrats including Harry Reid, the senior Democrat in the Senate, in urging Trump, a Republican, to dump Bannon.

Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania said Monday that he is "deeply troubled" by the appointment. Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, who will likely take Reid's top spot after Reid retires at the end of the year, said this week that Bannon's appointment "signals that many of his dangerous and bigoted ideas will have a seat at the table in the White House," according to Politico.

But Bannon has defenders, too.

"That's not the Steve Bannon that I know and I've spent a lot of time with him," Reince Priebus, the Republican Party chairman who will become Trump's chief of staff, said on MSNBC's Morning Joe, according to USA Today. "And here's a guy who's a Harvard Business School, London School of Economics, (and) 10-year Naval officer advising admirals. He was a force for good on the campaign at every level that I saw, all the time."

.@IngrahamAngle: Steve Bannon is a smart, wonderful person who is dedicated to improving this country pic.twitter.com/LSjl8c1qf7 — FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) November 15, 2016

And while the ADL and J Street, a liberal pro-Israel organization, criticized Trump's selection, a number of other Jewish groups have held back.

The Washington Post reported that other groups prefer "to pledge their hope of working with the new president and the administration that he is in the process of assembling."

More from Brown:

Brown's reaction is no surprise. He told cleveland.com's Mary Kilpatrick Monday, "I think his behavior is despicable. I am shocked that a president of the United States would bring someone with his views about race and religion, to put them that close to the seat of power."

Here is Brown's full statement today:

"We cannot bring the country together by inviting into the White House the same bigotry and hate speech that divided us on the campaign trail. This is not about a difference in policy or politics - Steve Bannon has promoted anti-Semitic, racist, misogynistic and dangerous views that have emboldened white nationalist forces and caused some Americans to question whether they can still feel safe in the country we all love. President-elect Trump told us he wants to be a President for 'all Americans' and he cannot do that while empowering bigotry that targets and threatens many of them. Steve Bannon must be removed from his position immediately."