Stephen Bannon

Bannon Forms Group to Defend Trump

August 15, 2018 at 8:45 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Steve Brannon “is forming a group to try to sell voters on a midterm message that they should support Republicans to defend the Trump agenda and save the president from impeachment,” the New York Times reports.

“The group, Citizens of the American Republic, is Mr. Bannon’s new vehicle after he was pushed out of the White House last summer and then parted ways with the conservative website Breitbart.”

“Mr. Bannon declined to describe his donors or how much money the group has raised. One person close to the group said that Rebekah Mercer, the hedge fund billionaire who supported Mr. Bannon’s previous political efforts but broke ties with him months ago, has no role.”

Bannon Pledges War on Koch Network

August 3, 2018 at 9:36 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Stephen Bannon is ratcheting up his war on the Koch network, accusing the billionaire brothers of running “a conscious scam” and a “con job,” The Hill reports.

“He also has a warning for Republican candidates in November’s midterm elections who might be thinking of distancing themselves from President Trump: Don’t do it.”

Said Bannon: “You’re not going to be able to hide Trump. The opposition is going to force this anyway…You have to go all-in. If you try to go in half-baked, it’s not going to work.”

Bannon Setting Up ‘War Room’ for Midterm Elections

August 2, 2018 at 4:28 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Steve Bannon is expected to launch a new “war room” aimed at helping Republicans keep control of Congress, “all in the name of preserving the power of his former boss President Trump, who only a few months ago publicly denounced him,” BuzzFeed News reports.

“Sources close to Trump so far say they don’t know how closely the president is watching his former chief strategist. And there are mixed signals as to how easily Bannon will be able to reingratiate himself with Trump’s inner circle, which he flamed out of earlier this year.”

Quote of the Day

July 31, 2018 at 11:57 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“This election is very simple. It’s an up-or-down vote on impeachment.”

— Stephen Bannon, quoted by Vanity Fair.

Bannon Plots with Boris Johnson

July 26, 2018 at 7:02 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Donald Trump’s former chief adviser Steve Bannon has been in direct communication with former UK foreign secretary Boris Johnson, as both men plot new moves that could have a significant impact on European politics,” multiple sources told BuzzFeed News.

“A source who spent time with Bannon during the trip said Bannon was in private contact with Johnson while he was in Britain… A former UK government source told BuzzFeed News that Bannon and Johnson have known each other for some time, and exchanged text messages as far back as when Johnson was foreign secretary and Bannon worked in the White House.”

Exchange of the Day

July 15, 2018 at 10:45 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Stephen Bannon was interviewed by Nigel Farage and Theo Underwood on LBC digital radio:

BANNON: “If I was in middle England, and said this wasn’t what I voted for, I would rise up and make sure the guys in parliament knew it. You’re going to have to fight to take your country back, every day.

“Whether it’s Italy, France, England, or the United States. If we quit, they’re going to be in control.”

USHERWOOD: “That sounds like a call to arms.”

BANNON: “Absolutely. This is war.”

Bannon ‘Couldn’t Be Prouder’ of Trump

June 17, 2018 at 4:31 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon may not have left the White House on the best of terms, but he told ABC News that he “couldn’t be prouder” of President Trump and the job he’s doing.

Said Bannon: “Donald Trump is accomplishing everything he committed to the American people on the campaign that I stepped in as CEO. I couldn’t be prouder of the guy. All he has to do is continue to hit those marks on that whiteboard and he’s going to run the tables.”

Bannon Unleashing ‘Top Secret’ Ad Campaign

June 14, 2018 at 12:21 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Steve Bannon plans to unleash an advertising campaign touting President Trump’s achievements to help the GOP ahead of the 2018 midterm elections,” CNBC reports.

“It could also be seen as a bid by the former White House chief strategist to revive his own political fortunes… The ads haven’t been released, and it’s unclear when voters will get a taste of Bannon’s messaging. It also hasn’t been determined whether the ads will be released on TV, digitally or on radio. However, the plan is to run them across the country.”

“As part of Bannon’s plan, dubbed ‘top secret’ by one of his allies, he’s also looking to create a war room… that will allow him to monitor contests through the November election.”

Bannon Predicts Shutdown Before Midterms

June 1, 2018 at 11:19 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Steve Bannon told CNN that he thinks President Trump will force another government shutdown this fall.

Said Bannon: “I believe that what he’s going to do is, as we come up on September 30, if that appropriations bill does not include spending to fully build his wall — not some $1.6 billion for prototypes, I mean to build the southern wall — I believe he will shut down the government.”

He added: “The wall is not just totemic. The wall is absolutely central to his program.”

Bannon Asked for Test Messaging on Russia

April 25, 2018 at 6:20 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie told Democrats on Capitol Hill that former Trump campaign strategist Steve Bannon asked the embattled data firm to test messaging on Russia, NBC News reports.

Said Wylie: “I can’t explain why it was that they picked Vladimir Putin to talk about in focus groups or to do message testing or to do models on, and why that would be useful to Steve Bannon.”

Wylie also told lawmakers “that Bannon specifically tasked Cambridge Analytica with looking at ways to depress Democratic turnout with their messaging.”

Bannon Oversaw Collection of Facebook Data

March 20, 2018 at 8:41 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Stephen Bannon oversaw Cambridge Analytica’s early efforts to collect troves of Facebook data as part of an ambitious program to build detailed profiles of millions of American voters,” the Washington Post reports.

“The 2014 effort was part of a high-tech form of voter persuasion touted by the company, which under Bannon identified and tested the power of anti-establishment messages that later would emerge as central themes in President Trump’s campaign speeches, according to Chris Wylie, who left the company at the end of that year.”

Among the messages tested were “drain the swamp” and “deep state.”

Said Wylie: “The only foreign thing we tested was Putin. It turns out, there’s a lot of Americans who really like this idea of a really strong authoritarian leader and people were quite defensive in focus groups of Putin’s invasion of Crimea.”

Bannon Plots His Comeback

February 28, 2018 at 1:35 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Former White House strategist Steve Bannon told GQ about his plans to launch a new political group sometime this spring or this summer.

Said Bannon: “In the modern digital age—and David Axelrod saw this very early on, and we a little bit copied it—there’s three things that are important: It’s authenticity of candidate. The one thing the Internet has done is blown through phonies. Number two is the importance of actionable ideas. Obama had a series of actionable ideas. Donald Trump had a series of actionable ideas. It’s the reason my office was called the war room. Number three is—and this is also an Obama and Trump characteristic — a volunteer army of dedicated people.”

He added: “We know from the studies, the most powerful thing in a digital world — in an isolated world, in a fractured world — is somebody ringing a doorbell and coming up to you and telling you from their heart about a candidate. The most powerful thing to this women’s movement is not Oprah Winfrey. The most powerful thing is a million people in the streets on a Saturday. That’s power.”

Bannon Met with Mueller for 20 Hours

February 15, 2018 at 2:48 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Steve Bannon was interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller over multiple days this week, NBC News reports.

“Bannon spent a total of some 20 hours in conversations with the team led by Mueller, who is investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia as well as other issues that have arisen around the probe.”

Bannon Floated Idea of Running for President

February 12, 2018 at 6:32 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Playbook has exceprts from the paperpack version of Devil’s Bargain by Joshua Green:

“If Trump quit or was impeached, Bannon told friends, it would eliminate the first great champion of Trumpism—but it wouldn’t be a negative judgment on the politics that had swept him into office. In such a scenario, who better to succeed Trump than the man who got him elected? Bannon shared his interest in running for president with only a few close friends, and even they were never quite sure how seriously to take these flights of fancy.”

“But Bannon had thought hard enough about a path to the White House that he’d even toyed with starting a new political party and settled on a name: the National Union Party. That was the temporary name that Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party had adopted in 1864 to attract War Democrats and Unionists. In Bannon’s vision, it would now unite disaffected populists on both ends of the political spectrum. With support from financial benefactors like the Mercer family, he seemed to imagine such a path might be viable, and that a true devotee of right-wing nationalism — rather than a charlatan like Trump—could succeed where his predecessor had failed.”

Bannon Rails Against ‘Anti-Patriarchy Movement’

February 10, 2018 at 8:59 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Steve Bannon is quoted in a new edition of the book Devil’s Bargain as sharply criticizing what he terms the “anti-patriarchy movement” — that is, the movement against sexual harassment and assault — saying he believes it will “undo ten thousand years of recorded history,” CNN reports.

Said Bannon: “It’s a Cromwell moment! It’s even more powerful than populism. It’s deeper. It’s primal. It’s elemental. The long black dresses and all that — this is the Puritans! It’s anti-patriarchy.”

He added: “You watch. The time has come. Women are gonna take charge of society. And they couldn’t juxtapose a better villain than Trump. He is the patriarch.”

Through Steve Bannon’s Eyes

February 9, 2018 at 8:15 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Michael Lewis writes about watching the State of the Union address with Steve Bannon:

Words are now coming out of Trump’s mouth but Bannon seems to be only half listening. He’s got a pair of phones out and is scrolling through the speech, the text of which someone has just sent him. As he reads his face flushes. “They have path to citizenship in here,” he says, matter-of- factly. “It’s terrible. It’s a betrayal.”

He leaves the room for several minutes, perhaps to compose himself. When he returns he takes real notice of the remarkable scene that is unfolding. At even the most anodyne applause lines the Democrats remain seated. Bannon seems to view the Democrats less as the opposition party than figures of fun. “The Democrats don’t matter,” he had said to me over our lunch. “The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.” But he stares at the seated Democrats with genuine wonder. “Look at this,” he says. “Even Reagan — I’ve never seen a State of the Union like this.”

“Tell me when you think Trump really cares about what he is saying,” I say.

Bannon laughs, but not a happy laugh. “I will.”