Posted on 01/04/2018 1:39:04 AM PST by Oshkalaboomboom
If it holds, the end of Bannon’s influence will give better men and women a chance to rise in the White House.
Early this morning, the Guardian reported on the contents of a new book by journalist Michael Wolff. According to the paper’s story, Steve Bannon spoke to Wolff on the record about his experiences in the Trump campaign and the Trump White House, and he sounded more like a member of the #Resistance than the president’s former chief strategist.
According to Wolff, Bannon called Donald Junior’s now-infamous June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer in Trump Tower “treasonous” and “unpatriotic.” He said that Trump Jr. should have “called the FBI immediately” after the Russians first made contact. He also speculated that Trump knew about the meeting, declaring in typical Bannon language that “the chance that Don Jr. did not walk these jumos up to his father’s office on the 26th floor is zero.” And he speculated that the Mueller probe would focus on money laundering, predicting that “they’re going to crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV.”
It didn’t take long for President Trump to respond with one of the most blistering statements of his presidency so far:
Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my Presidency. When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind. Steve was a staffer who worked for me after I had already won the nomination by defeating seventeen candidates, often described as the most talented field ever assembled in the Republican party.Now that he is on his own, Steve is learning that winning isn’t as easy as I make it look. Steve had very little to do with our historic victory, which was delivered by the forgotten men and women of this country. Yet Steve had everything to do with the loss of a Senate seat in Alabama held for more than thirty years by Republicans.
Steve doesn’t represent my base — he’s only in it for himself.
Steve pretends to be at war with the media, which he calls the opposition party, yet he spent his time at the White House leaking false information to the media to make himself seem far more important than he was. It is the only thing he does well. Steve was rarely in a one-on-one meeting with me and only pretends to have had influence to fool a few people with no access and no clue, whom he helped write phony books.
We have many great Republican members of Congress and candidates who are very supportive of the Make America Great Again agenda. Like me, they love the United States of America and are helping to finally take our country back and build it up, rather than simply seeking to burn it all down.
If this statement marks the definitive end of the Trump–Bannon relationship — as Erick Erickson notes, there’s still reason to be skeptical that it will — then Trump just made one of the best decisions of his presidency, for at least three reasons.
First, Bannon is the public figure who has done more than any other person to introduce the evil alt-right into mainstream American life. He bragged about turning Breitbart into the “platform” of that movement, backed one of its most prominent politicians in Paul Nehlen, and relentlessly promoted its foremost apologist, the noxious Milo Yiannopoulos. He was also reportedly one of the driving forces behind perhaps the worst moment of Trump’s term so far: the president’s decision to equivocate following the alt-right rally and terrorist attack in Charlottesville, Va.
Second, Bannon is the primary pseudo-intellectual advocate of the incoherent, destructive nationalist–populist ideology that he tried to transform into “Trumpism.” His isolationism would harm American national security, his protectionism would harm the American economy, and his populism veers dangerously into the realm of white-identity politics. If his influence over the president is truly at an end, the GOP will have a real chance to restore itself as a party of conservative ideas.
Third, Bannon’s fall gives space for better men and women to rise. There are good and decent people who work in this White House, people who haven’t merely latched on to Trump to leech off his fame and climb to power. There are conservatives who seek to use this historical moment to advance the common good, and there are pragmatists who understand that divisiveness is not in the nation’s — or Trump’s — best interests. There is never any guarantee that virtue and good policy will prevail, but decisively breaking with a man so vile is unquestionably a positive step.
Questions about Trump’s presidency weren’t limited to questions about Trump himself. As he rose to power, other people would obviously rise right alongside him. Their identities and characters mattered, and still do, because their mere proximity to Trump gives them real influence. When Trump rose, Bannon rose, and Bannon is one of the worst men in American politics. Today represents a perfect example of addition by subtraction. Trump did well in rejecting Bannon. Here’s hoping he holds to that decision and replaces Bannon’s voice with the better voices that still remain.
You’re right, but they’re not the only ones going hog wild on Bannon’s perfidy. From the comments at OANN:
‘At any rate, the media, and especially the establishment (”legacy” or “mainstream”) media, is abuzz, and has flocked to this story as quickly and surely as flies to a dungpile. It hasn’t had such an orgaistic fervor since at least last month’s Alabama election.’
Bannon has had plenty of time to correct any misquotes - he hasn’t done so. The silence on that front is deafening.
I have no problem with Bannon and Trump having a feud as long as both march is the same nationalist direction. Like Patton and Monty put aside differences in 1944 fought on the same team.
At this point Trump should form a patriot party centered on economic nationalism and immigration control.
Sadly, you are correct about that.
There is no hate in acknowledged that Bannon has provided damaging fodder to Trump’s enemies. That is a simple fact.
“...Jared and Ivanka are the biggest proponents of trading DACA for the border wall...”
If this is true (and it could be) this is the key to Bannon’s frustration.
This is not a defense of Bannon, however it is an important point in understanding the rift. It seems that for Bannon, building the border wall and no amnesty is very important to him, important enough to expose Kushner (if in fact, Kushner is the globalist amnesty influence on the President).
Bannon’s backstabbing is wrong and I obviously support the President over Bannon, however this could be the root of the problem.
I would not be completely surprised if this story is out there to confound the media ... we will see of course.
In the age of social media (which Bannon apparently doesn't use), not firing back immediately can be costly.
There is a female talk show host who used to work at brietbart. She’s pretty popular and I can’t recall her name. Brain fade on my part - you’d recognize her name. Good looking, she was on the cover of Nat. Review with a AR-15 and it gave the left the vapors. She talked about her time working under Bannon and had nothing good to say about him. There was clearly a lot of resentment there.
Bannon is a treasonous scumbag. But French is a delusional RINO.
Trump was Trump long before Bannon came along.
Good point.
There’s a story out today that Wolff has audiotapes backing up the quotations in the book. DC is a one party consent for recording phone calls. Likely they didn’t realize their ‘off the record’ comments were being recorded.
Whole thing was a mess. Bannon’s fault for letting this Wolff in the henhouse.
Don’t forget that while Bannon was there, many insiders started all sorts of rumors about him.
There is certainly a good deal of infighting within the Trump team.
Of course none of this was planned from the beginning for distraction purposes or the like.
Like it or not his Presidency depends on how he handles this issue. I am not optimistic about a resolution of DACA that will firm up his base.
His face implies that he has a drinking problem. It is red and flushed.
The media has made him out to be much more of a conservative icon than he ever truly was, because they like to smear him as a white suprematist.
Well all that is certainly true. However, conservatives have done their part. In the early days after Bannon was first brought into the WH, I ventured some relatively mild criticism of him (on this site). The blowback was ferocious. The mob formed right up, and they were out for blood.
Of course things are different now. But you’d almost have to be a survivor from the early days to know what it was like. Conservatives routinely listed Bannon as one of Trump’s few good picks. When Bannon left the WH, it was as if many conservatives’ dog had died. Jvanka-hate hate spiralled out of control, and black armbands [for mourning] were the order of the day.
There was a patch of tricky wording in your post, but very interesting about Rush. Ikn that Bannon cared about public opinion while he was in the WH. What he wanted was influence with Trump. The showdown came over Comey. Bannon wanted Trump to keep Comey on at the FBI, and Kushner wanted Comey fired. Comey was fired, and Bannon had the long knives out for Kushner ever after.
French and the NRO are the epitome of country club loser Republican poster boys and girls. They are not conservative and consider rank and file, every day working conservative Americans to be beneath them. Total elitist and arrogant party pukes...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.