If you’ve ever played Red Dead Redemption, you probably lassoed people, thrown them on a railroad track, and watched a train run them over. It was an excellent way to deal with a posse of bounty hunters that went after you and lost. That is essentially what has happened to Steve Bannon. The Trump Administration laid into Bannon, not only saying he’s lost his mind, but also diminished the accomplishments Bannon claims.
Here’s the full statement:
Statement from the President of the United States
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.
To many conservatives, this is a welcomed victory. To liberals, this is Russian conspiracy fodder. After all, Steve Bannon did just switch sides on the Russian Farce issue. So Trump can expect that headache for weeks to come. Donald Trump Jr. went even more personal because Bannon’s comments were aimed at him as well.
Wow, Just looked at the comments section on Breitbart. Wow. When Bannon has lost Breitbart, he’s left with . . . umm, nothing.
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 3, 2018
It would be amazing if there would have been a nice simple path to keeping this seat with a nice 30 point margin… #thankssteve https://t.co/uB7DXMZjiH
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 3, 2018
Steve had the honor of working in the White House & serving the country. Unfortunately, he squandered that privilege & turned that opportunity into a nightmare of backstabbing, harassing, leaking, lying & undermining the President. Steve is not a strategist, he is an opportunist
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 3, 2018
Ben Shapiro has an especially scathing response to Bannon.
Perspectives
Ben Shapiro Daily Wire: #WAR: Bannon Goes To War With Trump, Calls Trump-Russia Campaign Activities ‘Treasonous’
None of this is a surprise coming from a leech on the ass of power, a man who rode Michele Bachmann’s coattails to Sarah Palin’s coattails to Andrew Breitbart’s coattails to Donald Trump’s and the Mercer family’s coattails. It’s also not a shock from a fellow whose only contribution to the White House was apparently leaking regularly to reporters for The New York Times. Bannon’s an ambitious fellow, and his connection to power has now been reportedly cut off on both the monetary side (the going rumor has it that the Mercers aren’t funding his side projects anymore) and the political side (he’s not on good terms with the Trump White House, either). That means he has to build a brand of his own. So far, his branding isn’t going well — it turns out endorsing a credibly accused child molester and then utilizing your publication to dig up dirt on the accusers doesn’t do much for your Q rating. So now Bannon, who always had more balls than brains, is turning on the hand that fed him.
The Hill: Trump feud puts pressure on Bannon candidates
Great America Alliance (GAA), the super PAC that has operated as a vehicle for Bannon’s endorsement and sports a top Bannon ally as an advisor, issued a statement noting that Bannon and the group “did not always agree on candidates or issues.”
“Our top priority is supporting President Trump and advancing an America First agenda,” Ed Rollins, the group’s chairman, said in the statement. “Whether or not Bannon shares this priority, it won’t change our focus one bit.”
Great America Alliance’s statement could provide some cover for endorsed candidates who don’t want to be tied to Bannon right now or seen as opposing Trump.
Rep. Evan Jenkins (R-W.V.), who is facing Bannon-endorsed state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey in the primary, became the first candidate to publicly seize on the feud.
“After Steve Bannon’s vicious attacks on President Trump and his family, Patrick Morrisey should immediately disavow Bannon’s support,” Jenkins said in a statement Wednesday afternoon.
Reactions
In the last 24 hours, Trump has basically told Kim Jong Un and Steve Bannon to go f*ck themselves.
He’s not going to put up with anybody’s bullshit and this is why people love him.
— Educating Liberals (@Education4Libs) January 3, 2018
And just like that…
The left supported Steve Bannon. pic.twitter.com/A7OKDkcIZr
— MAGAPILL ★★★ (@MAGAPILL) January 3, 2018
Trump hires only the best people.*
*Offer not valid for Corey Lewandowski, Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, Omarosa, Tom Price, Seb Gorka, Reince Priebus, Anthony Scaramucci, Sean Spicer, or Steve Bannon.
— Leon Wolf (@LeonHWolf) January 3, 2018
Steve Bannon tried to do to the Trump presidency what he did to Breitbart News. Trump’s nuclear button was bigger.
— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) January 3, 2018
Final Thoughts
These events revealed that a lot of our assumptions about Steve Bannon were incorrect. He’s not a mastermind. He wasn’t that close to Trump. He’s not a Party Boss (although I mentioned that he sucked as one). Steve Bannon is just a brown-nosing sycophant and now he just got explosive diarrhea in his face. People won’t want to be around that stink, which is a welcomed victory for conservatives in 2018. People don’t want to read stink either, so we shall wait and see what happens to Breitbart.
