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Things are not looking too spiffy for Steve Bannon
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Bannon’s allies start to abandon him
Former White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon’s hopes of leading a revolt in the Republican Party this year suffered a severe blow Thursday as his allies rebuked and abandoned him following a nasty public break with President Trump.
Candidates who once embraced Bannon distanced themselves from his efforts, groups aligned with his views sought separation, and his most important financial backer, the billionaire Mercer family, which has championed him for years, announced that it was severing ties.
Even his position as chairman of Breitbart News, a website he has referred to as one of his most effective “weapons,” was being reviewed by the company’s leadership, according to people familiar with the talks — a move that White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders publicly encouraged at Thursday’s White House news briefing.
One person close to Trump said, “The president’s take is that everyone has to now make a choice: ‘It’s me or it’s Steve.’ ”
The fractured relationship between President Trump and his former chief strategist Stephen Bannon took center stage on Thursday as questions mounted about Bannon’s political future.
The heaviest blow for Bannon came as one of his most important financial backers, Rebekah Mercer, issued a rare public rebuke of the strategist in a statement first reported by the Washington Post on Thursday afternoon.
Republican politicians who have long disliked Bannon — including New York Congressman Peter King and, reportedly, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) — have been gratified by his apparent demise.
Even conservative strategists who harbor some sympathy for Bannon are shocked at the speed of his apparent fall.
“Bannon has pretty effectively marginalized himself, with inexplicable speed,” said one long-established Republican strategist, who added that Bannon had “lost a war of words with the president.”
A former Trump aide, meanwhile, when asked about Bannon’s future, replied wryly, “Time of death: 1:20 p.m.”
Bannon was an early enthusiast for Trump’s candidacy and took over as de facto leader of the campaign in August 2016 when conventional wisdom held that it was doomed.
But his influence may have reached its high-water mark when he was appointed chief strategist at the outset of the Trump presidency. He soon became embroiled in in-fighting and made powerful enemies, including Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law. He was pushed out of the White House last August, soon after John Kelly took over as chief of staff.
Bannon loyalists insist that predictions of his demise are premature and suggest the White House has overreacted. But they acknowledge that this most recent break with Trump is dispiriting.
“It’s a family fight. They always get back together,” said one source close to Bannon. But this person also admitted, “This one could take some time.”
Trump slams tell-all hours before its release, nicknames Bannon 'Sloppy Steve'
President Donald Trump took to Twitter late Thursday night to slam a scandalous new book about his first year in office as "full of lies," just hours ahead of its new, pushed-up Friday morning release.
In the same tweet, the president also seemingly coined a new nickname for former White House strategist Steve Bannon: "Sloppy Steve."
"I authorized Zero access to White House (actually turned him down many times) for author of phony book! I never spoke to him for book. Full of lies, misrepresentations and sources that don’t exist. Look at this guy’s past and watch what happens to him and Sloppy Steve!" Trump tweeted, without naming journalist Michael Wolff, author of "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House."
In "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House," Bannon is quoted as worrying about the legal implications of the June 2016 meeting between Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort and a group of Russians who promised damaging information against Hillary Clinton.
"Even if you thought that this was not treasonous, or unpatriotic, or bad [expletive], and I happen to think it’s all of that you should have called the FBI immediately,” Bannon is quoted as saying, according to Wolff's book.
Trump lawyer Charles Harder demanded in a letter Wednesday on behalf of his client that Wolff and his publisher Henry Holt & Co. immediately "cease and desist from any further publication, release or dissemination" of the book.
The Breitbart hardcore fans distrust smart people.
Bannon's not as smart as he thinks he is. If he was, he wouldn't be on the wrong side of the Mercers.
Interestingly, there are supposedly some remarks in Fire and Fury that indicate Bannon wants to be President and may be planning his own run at the job.
He better clean up a little first; once Trump fired him, he went back to looking like a derelict bum again.
Bannon has recognized this was a fight he couldn't win. Majority of people chose Trump. So Bannon has apologized. If he supports Trump's agenda he may be brought back into the fold like Lewandowski, who was fired, and Roger Stone, who was fired several times by Trump.
I think Breitbart should find a new Exec Chairman to bring back the spirit of Andrew Breitbart's original vision. I don't like Bannon using Breitbart for his personal vendettas any more than I like Bezos using the WashingtonPoo for the same and Jeff Zucker using CNN. Just report the damned news!
I think Breitbart should find a new Exec Chairman to bring back the spirit of Andrew Breitbart's original vision. I don't like Bannon using Breitbart for his personal vendettas any more than I like Bezos using the WashingtonPoo for the same and Jeff Zucker using CNN. Just report the damned news!
And Igor using Disney/ABC/ESPN, and Roberts using Comcast, and Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter, MSN, etc all using their big corp power to push their Oppressive leftist agenda.
This is practically Shakespearean. Bannon created a monster and the monster has turned on him.
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