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Tag: steve bannon
Steve Bannon

Bannon Urges Trump To 'Ignore' Suburban Women And 'Rule For 100 Years'

Steve Bannon, former Trump strategist and host of War Room, is telling his audience that Donald Trump should give up trying to win over suburban women in the upcoming presidential election.

The former president is historically unpopular with this demographic, and Republicans have long worried that he needs to win them over for a successful run.

While complaining that Trump’s upcoming criminal trial is designed to “destroy Trump in front of the American people and particularly women,” Bannon said he is “pretty adamant you shouldn't go out of your way to chase that vote.”

The next day Bannon ridiculed the idea that Trump has to “modify” his message to attract college-educated women voters, whom he called “all the Karens,” calling it “a waste of time and money” as “they think Trump personifies the patriarchy.”

Bannon reiterated the point the day after, saying that trying to convince suburban women to vote for Trump is “a waste of resources.”

On April 4, Bannon tried to caveat his previous strategic advice after it received attention on social media. He said, “Don't chase the marginal Karen in a suburb that's got a college degree, just trying to kowtow to her to convince her to support our movement and support Trump when we have tens of millions of men that have punched out of the system because of the way immigration and all the society is stacked against them.” He went on to say if you get the support of these men, “you rule for 100 years.”

Last month, Bannon argued that Republicans must find a way to counter Taylor Swift fans rather than bring them into the fold, and suggested banning TikTok to achieve this objective.

A former White House adviser, Bannon has reemerged in Trumpworld as “one of Trump’s most important advisers” ahead of the 2024 election, according to reporting from ABC’s Jonathan Karl. His show War Room is the media home for Project 2025, a comprehensive staffing and policy plan for the next Republican administration. Project 2025 includes an extensive anti-choice agenda that takes aim at women’s health broadly, including calling for removing the term “abortion” from all federal laws and regulation, reversing abortion pill approval, punishing abortion providers by withdrawing federal health funding, and restricting clinics that provide contraception and STD testing. The Heritage Foundation, which is leading Project 2025, has released draconian new IVF policy recommendations that would limit access to the reproductive method.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Navarro Trump

As Navarro Begins Sentence, Bannon Tells Trumpists To Be Ready 'For Prison'

In recent days, MAGA media have been sending subtle (and not so subtle) messages to their supporters that they ought to be willing and prepared to go to jail on behalf of the Trump movement.

While giving a keynote address to the Patrons for American Statecraft Conference, put on by the right-wing organization American Moment, War Room host Steve Bannon told the audience, “You have to be prepared to go to prison” for “deconstructing the administrative state,” bragging, “I’ve got prison sentences all over.”

Bannon reposted the clip on Gettr, adding, “The Call to Action is Victory,” and that under former President Donald Trump “the Hunted Become the Hunters— and the Jails and Prisons Fill with all the Traitors.”

This message has since spread across the conservative media ecosystem. On March 19, former Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro reported to federal prison. Convicted of contempt of Congress, Navarro was sentenced to serve four months after refusing to comply with a subpoena from the House January 6 committee in February 2022. Before surrendering, he gave a rambling press conference during which he promoted his forthcoming book and offered reporters advanced copies.

After taking the press conference live on War Room, returned to sing Navarro’s praises. “The composure he had, the courage he has, and that courage is contagious,” Bannon said, suggesting others will follow in Navarro’s footsteps to prison, “It’s one of the things the Biden regime is afraid of.” He later added: “I love the fact he makes a pitch for the book right there. It’s pure Navarro. That’s Trumpian.”

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell joined later to echo the sentiment: “Peter’s leading the charge with his courage. And, you guys, it’s — courage is contagious. It’s spread everywhere now.”

On March 18, Navarro appeared on Donald Trump Jr.’s podcast Triggered with Donald Trump Jr.

Trump Jr. — whose publishing company, Winning Team Publishing, is behind Navarro’s new book — praised Navarro for appearing on his podcast before reporting to prison. “I wish every conservative had your balls, but more importantly your heart,” said the former president’s eldest son, “I think everyone watching has to understand that. Because that’s honestly — that’s a lesson in patriotism, right there. It’s amazing to me. It truly is. And, man, I wish we had a billion of you.”

Across social media, Trump supporters have been posting messages of solidarity with Navarro. “The Biden admin just threw one of Trump’s senior advisors in jail today,” wrote neo-Nazi collaborator and prominent MAGA troll Jack Posobiec. “You think they won’t do the same to you and your family? This is what they have wanted all along.”

Former Trump White House speechwriter Darren Beattie, who was fired after it was revealed he spoke at a white nationalist conference, posted, “Send power to the great Peter Navarro.”

Vaccine conspiracy theorist and MAGA media regular Robert Malone said Navarro’s incarceration shows that “each of us are at risk until this spiritual war has been won.”

But Navarro is no victim. He was convicted because he knowingly and willfully defied a congressional subpoena. He was denied a delayed sentence pending appeal after the Supreme Court affirmed a lower court’s ruling that any appeal was unlikely to overturn sentencing or result in a new trial. As U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta said to Navarro during his initial sentencing in January: “You are not a victim. You are not the object of a political prosecution. These are circumstances of your own making.”

Meanwhile, many Trump supporters already know what it feels like to face jail time for the game show host president. According to analysis by The Washington Post, “Judges have ordered prison time for nearly every defendant convicted of a felony and some jail time to about half of those convicted of misdemeanors” committed in connection to the January 6 insurrection.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Steve Bannon

Bannon And January 6 Organizer Now Pushing Anti-Immigrant Rallies

Podcaster and former Trump strategist Steve Bannon pushed the white supremacist “great replacement” conspiracy theory while hosting Tea Party Patriots leader Jenny Beth Martin, who was on to promote an anti-immigrant rally in Georgia.

Martin co-founded the Tea Party Patriots, a conservative grassroots organization formed in 2009 that has spread conspiracy theories and claims about alleged voter fraud in the 2020 election. The group sponsored a pre-insurrection rally in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021.

During the March 1 interview, Martin promoted a rally calling for “an end to the invasion on our border” and centers around the recent death of student Laken Riley. The suspect in Riley’s death is an undocumented person from Venezuela, a fact right-wing media have used to whip up hysteria about so-called “migrant crime.”

“We’re going to deport 10 million illegal alien invaders,” Bannon said. “They’re not going to sit here and continue to perpetrate crime on our cities, taking away health care, taking away the little education that is happening in the cities for these kids today.”

Later in the interview, Bannon invoked the white supremacist “great replacement” conspiracy theory, which asserts that migrants will replace white people in America and vote for Democrats. This conspiracy theory has previously motivated mass shootings against minority communities.

“This whole thing is to break the minority communities on wages, to destroy their schools, their education. They want to replace them,” Bannon said. “They want to replace the existing African American and Hispanic population in this country because, guess what, they understand they’re turning right.” While Bannon describes this imaginary replacement of Americans specifically as a threat to Black and Hispanic communities, his career laundering extreme racism into the mainstream belies this cheap slight of hand.

This interview continues Bannon’s extreme anti-immigrant crusade. Given Bannon’s prominence in the MAGA media universe, his show sometimes functions as a platform for message testing on issues that Trump-aligned figures hope to capitalize on ahead of the 2024 election.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Steve Bannon

Bannon At Risk In New York Fraud Case -- After Stiffing His Lawyer

Steve Bannon is having a bad one. A recent filing by Bannon’s lawyers suggests the former top advisor to Donald Trump may have shot himself in the foot when he decided to not pay the nearly half a million dollars he owed his previous lawyer, Robert Costello, for services rendered.

The law firm Davidoff Hutcher & Citron, where Costello is a partner, sued Bannon in early 2023, winning a judgment against him in July. According to the Daily Beast, Bannon’s lawyers filed a motion on January 11, to block Costello’s firm from pursuing “post-judgment discovery from Mr. Bannon,” by arguing that the requests for banking statements and other information that the law firm had asked for “poses a significant risk of compromising Mr. Bannon’s Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.”

At issue seems to be the fact that while Bannon is facing an indictment in New York City alleging that he defrauded donors to the “We Build the Wall” fundraising campaign, these “post-judgement” discovery requests might force Bannon to admit a teensy-weensy bit of fraud.

When Bannon and his crew were originally arrested and federally charged with conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering, he got the lucky break that Donald Trump was still in office and pardoned him. By most reports, there was more than enough evidence that money raised by the “We Build the Wall” scam was going to anything but building a wall. It came as no surprise when Brian Kolfage, the fundraiser’s co-founder, pled guilty to his role in siphoning off money from the campaign. Last April, the Associate Press detailed the allegations:

Prosecutors said the scheme was hatched by Kolfage, who served as the public face of the effort as it raised more than $25 million from donors across the country. He repeatedly assured the public he would “not take a penny” from the campaign.

As money poured into the cause, Kolfage and his partner, Shea, turned to Bannon and Badolato for help creating a nonprofit, We Build the Wall, Inc. The four defendants then took steps to funnel the money to themselves for personal gain, prosecutors said.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and New York Attorney General Letitia James announced new charges against Bannon and WEBUILDTHEWALL, INC., in September 2022. Bannon’s trial has been set for May 28, 2024. But a couple months after the charges, Bannon’s prospects seemed to go in the toilet when he said he needed a new law team, citing “irreconcilable differences” and a communication breakdown.

Two months later, Bannon’s billionaire buddy Guo Wengui was arrested and indicted by federal agents for his own alleged fraud scheme involving his Gettr social media platform. Gettr has financial ties with Bannon and his podcast. In its recent filing, law firm where Costello is a parter has reportedly served restraining notices to entities like Gettr and Bannon’s War Room LLC (which produces his podcast). According to New York-based debt collection attorney Jocelyn Nager:

A restraining notice is a legal document served by a collection attorney or creditor that requires the recipient of the subpoena to hold any monies or other specific types of assets that belong to the judgment debtor. The judgment debtor does not need to be in possession of these assets. In most cases, a third party holds the assets for the judgment debtor.

Judgment creditors can serve restraining notices on financial institutions, like a bank. The bank searches its database and, if they locate an account or safe deposit bank, absent an exemption, the bank must restrain the asset for up to one year.

Earlier this week, Manhattan prosecutors mocked Bannon’s attempt to dismiss his fraud case as “bear[ing] little resemblance to reality.” They wrote, “People's presentation in the instant matter included ample evidence that was more than sufficient to support the grand jury's decision to vote the charges laid out in the indictment.”

It couldn’t be happening to a better guy.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.