Trump slams Bannon after criticism, says ex-chief strategist 'lost his mind'
Trump slams Bannon after criticism, says ex-chief strategist ‘lost his mind’
Could Steve Bannon derail President Trump’s agenda?
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blasts the former White House chief strategist’s plan to unseat GOP incumbents running for re-election to Congress; insight from Richard Fowler, radio talk show host and Fox News contributor, and Kevin McCullough, conservative syndicated radio host.
It’s probably safe to say the self-professed mastermind behind President Trump’s election won’t be back in 2020.
Trump issued a blistering, four-paragraph takedown of Steve Bannon Wednesday, hours after the Guardian reported that Bannon called Donald Trump Jr. “treasonous” for meeting with Russian operatives during the campaign.
“Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency,” Trump wrote. “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.”
“Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my Presidency.”
The statement came after excerpts of a forthcoming book, “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” by author Michael Wolff surfaced Wednesday. In the book, Bannon slams the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner and campaign chairman Paul Manafort and calls their infamous meeting with a Russian lawyer during the campaign “treasonous” and “unpatriotic.”
In his statement, Trump says Bannon doesn’t deserve any credit for his White House win.
“Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my Presidency,” Trump said in a statement.
(The Associated Press)
“Now that he is on his own, Steve is learning that winning isn’t as easy as I make it look,” Trump said. “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.”
He also accuses Bannon of leaking to the media while serving as his adviser at the White House.
“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,” he said. “It is the only thing he does well.”
He added, “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.”
Bannon spent just over a year formally working for the president, leaving the White House in August and returning to Breitbart News, the populist news site.
In a new book, Bannon slams the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., and calls his infamous meeting with a Russian lawyer during the campaign “treasonous” and “unpatriotic.”
(Reuters)
When he left the White House, Bannon said he would work to help Trump and wage a populist campaign from the outside.
“If there’s any confusion out there, let me clear it up: I’m leaving the White House and going to war for Trump against his opponents — on Capitol Hill, in the media, and in corporate America,” Bannon said.
Recently, he notably backed former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore in the state’s Senate race. Trump, on the other hand, backed incumbent appointed Sen. Luther Strange in the Republican primary, arguing he was more electable.
Moore, who faced allegations of past sexual misconduct, went on to lose that race for the seat once held by Attorney General Jeff Sessions to Democrat Doug Jones.
After Jones was sworn into office Wednesday, Trump Jr. sarcastically tweeted: “Thanks Steve. Keep up the great work.”
On Wednesday, after Trump’s statement, the Twitter account of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — who has sparred with Bannon — released an image of a smiling McConnell.
Trump was gracious when Bannon left the White House, thanking him for his help during the campaign.
“I want to thank Steve Bannon for his service,” the president tweeted. “He came to the campaign during my run against Crooked Hillary Clinton – it was great! Thanks S.”
Bannon formally joined Trump’s team in August of 2016, when he was tapped as chief executive of the campaign.
After Trump won the presidential race, Bannon was appointed to a senior adviser role at the same time Reince Priebus was named chief of staff.
Fox News’ Kristin Brown contributed to this report.
Source: Trump slams Bannon after criticism, says ex-chief strategist ‘lost his mind’
