On Saturday we noted that Donald Trump the extremely “stable genius” might have jumped the gun a bit with his scathing Steve Bannon statement issued this week in response to the comments attributed to the former chief strategist that appear in Michael Wolff’s new book.
Those comments of course include Bannon calling the Trump Tower meeting “treasonous” and predicting that Donald Trump Jr. will “crack like an egg on national television” if he’s subjected to too much scrutiny.
As it turns out, Bannon was prepared to release a statement defending Trump Jr. in response to the Wolff bombshell, but after Trump lambasted Steve, the statement was shelved.
Since then, Bannon has been ostracized. Trump is effectively demanding that Republicans choose sides, and thanks in no small part to the fact that Bannon has gone out of his way to make enemies over the past year, he’s losing the battle.
Meanwhile, in his capacity as “stable-genius-in-chief”, the President branded Bannon “Sloppy Steve” on Twitter, then called his former adviser the same absurd nickname on national television at a press briefing (from Camp David no less), and finally, arranged for Stephen Miller to go on CNN in order to further deride Bannon.
Well, in what is either a gambit to stop the incoming “fire and fury” until he can regroup and mount a counter-offensive or else is simply the most pathetic example of groveling in the history of politics, Bannon gave this statement to Axios on Sunday:
Donald Trump, Jr. is both a patriot and a good man. He has been relentless in his advocacy for his father and the agenda that has helped turn our country around. My support is also unwavering for the president and his agenda – as I have shown daily in my national radio broadcasts, on the pages of Breitbart News and in speeches and appearances from Tokyo and Hong Kong to Arizona and Alabama. President Trump was the only candidate that could have taken on and defeated the Clinton apparatus. I am the only person to date to conduct a global effort to preach the message of Trump and Trumpism; and remain ready to stand in the breech for this president’s efforts to make America great again. My comments about the meeting with Russian nationals came from my life experiences as a Naval officer stationed aboard a destroyer whose main mission was to hunt Soviet submarines to my time at the Pentagon during the Reagan years when our focus was the defeat of ‘the evil empire’ and to making films about Reagan’s war against the Soviets and Hillary Clinton’s involvement in selling uranium to them. My comments were aimed at Paul Manafort, a seasoned campaign professional with experience and knowledge of how the Russians operate. He should have known they are duplicitous, cunning and not our friends. To reiterate, those comments were not aimed at Don Jr. Everything I have to say about the ridiculous nature of the Russian ‘collusion’ investigation I said on my 60 Minutes interview. There was no collusion and the investigation is a witch hunt. I regret that my delay in responding to the inaccurate reporting regarding Don Jr has diverted attention from the president’s historical accomplishments in the first year of his presidency.
Gee Steve, what happened to having your “hands on your guns?” What happened to “loving a good gunfight“?
Oh, that’s right. You’re just like the rest of your ilk. “All hat and no cattle” – as Sarah Huckabee Sanders would say.
Bannon took this position to shine the light of hypocrisy on Trump. Bannon knows that Trump is history.