Tag: Stephen Bannon

Former Breitbart Spox Attributes Moore Loss to Free Press

Buck Banks

“Let’s not forget that this race was competitive in the first place because of the diligence, competence and tenacity of some enterprising reporters at the Washington Post and the Birmingham News (among others). What happened tonight illustrates how impactful and important the free press is in our political process. No matter how much noise there is about the ‘fake news’ media, the fact remains that the frontline of defense for our Republic begins and ends with the ability to pursue the truth and tell it…”

— Kurt Bardella, who used to rep Breitbart and has become an outspoken critic of Bannon and the site, in an email to CNN’s Brian Stelter.

If Trump Fires Bannon …

Buck Banks

“If Trump finally pushes Bannon out of the White House, the nationalist policy project will be all but dead. The new chief of staff, John Kelly, is far more moderate on immigration and has pushed Trump to abandon the idea of a physical border wall. Economic policy will be fully under the control of Cohn, and the heretical idea of raising taxes on the wealthy will have no champion. Trump himself has always been more animated by the xenophobia of Bannonism than by its populist economic views. A Trump White House without Bannon will be no more radical in its coddling of far-right groups—today Trump showed again that he needs no encouragement—but it will be more captured by the traditional small-government agenda of the G.O.P. Bannon hoped to destroy.”

— Ryan Lizza

Scarborough: ‘Trump Doesn’t Know Anything’

Buck Banks

“Donald Trump doesn’t know anything about policy. Donald Trump doesn’t know anything about politics. Donald Trump doesn’t know anything about anything. He can get up and give a good speech. You listen to him talk about any topic and he wanders from sentence to sentence to sentence. So Steve Bannon is now the President of the United States. And that was more clear yesterday than ever before.”

— “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough, quoted by Mediaite.

A Fired Bannon’s ‘Kill Bill’ Scenario

Buck Banks

“I asked friends and foes alike to imagine how, should Bannon get the boot, the pugnacious populist might exact his revenge. … Taken together, their suggestions amount to an epic, Kill Bill-style revenge saga that starts with Bannon leaking personal dirt on his enemies to the tabloids, using the megaphone of Breitbart News to exacerbate divisions inside the administration, and siccing an army of internet trolls on his adversaries to harass and defame them. It ends with Bannon using Cambridge Analytica data to identify and primary their vulnerable allies in Congress, then releasing a ‘Where Trump Went Wrong’ documentary on the eve of the November midterms and finally—in this revenge fantasy’s epic climax—running against Trump himself in 2020.”

— Ben Schreckinger

Why Trump Should Keep Bannon Close

Buck Banks

“If Bannon is cut loose, the old Washington adage of ‘better to have your enemy inside the tent pissing out’ will come into play. The coverage of Trump in the Bannon/Mercer echo chamber will go from ‘gushing hagiography’ to ‘more in sorrow than in anger’ to ‘Trump is now a globalist cuck shill for the ZOG’ faster than Andrew Breitbart can rotate in his grave. … Another reason firing Bannon is fraught with risk: Bannon is running the Russia pushback operation from inside the White House. He’s up to his ample ass in the Nunes shenanigan with NSC staffer Ezra Cohen-Watnik and White House Counsel’s Office staffer Mike Ellis. Bannon doesn’t just want to protect Trump over the Russia allegations; he wants to protect Russia, a nation he sees as an essential ally in his new alliance of white Christian nations against the Muslim horde. Does Trump really want Bannon, angry and in the wind, declaring his own jihad?”

— Rick Wilson