Less than week after President Trump issued a blistering, lengthy statement denouncing him, Steve Bannon is out at Breitbart News.
Breitbart issued a brief statement announcing Bannon&#8217;s resignation on Tuesday. Here is the <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/01/09/stephen-k-bannon-steps-breitbart-news-network/">statemen</a>t in its entirety:
<blockquote>
Stephen K. Bannon has stepped down from Breitbart News Network, where he served as Executive Chairman since 2012.
Bannon and Breitbart will work together on a smooth and orderly transition.
Bannon said, &#8220;I&#8217;m proud of what the Breitbart team has accomplished in so short a period of time in building out a world-class news platform.&#8221;
According to Breitbart CEO Larry Solov, &#8220;Steve is a valued part of our legacy, and we will always be grateful for his contributions, and what he has helped us to accomplish.&#8221;
</blockquote>
The announcement comes a little less than a week after the excerpts from a new Michael Wolff book on the Trump White House containing quotes from Bannon criticizing members of the Trump administration and Trump family created a media firestorm. Within hours of the initial reports, Trump issued a scathing public disavowal of Bannon.
Among the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/25340/bannon-heres-how-mueller-going-get-trump-james-barrett">quotes</a> in Wolff&#8217;s book that made headlines was Bannon&#8217;s condemnation of the &#8220;treasonous&#8221; meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian source. &#8220;They&#8217;re going to crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV,&#8221; Wolff quotes Bannon as saying.
&#8220;The three senior guys in the campaign thought it was a good idea to meet with a foreign government inside Trump Tower in the conference room on the 25th floor &#8211; with no lawyers. They didn&#8217;t have any lawyers,&#8221; said Bannon. &#8220;Even if you thought that this was not treasonous, or unpatriotic, or bad sh**, and I happen to think it&#8217;s all of that, you should have called the FBI immediately.&#8221;
Bannon also suggested that Robert Mueller would be able to get to Trump and his associates through &#8220;money laundering&#8221; charges, in part connected to Trump&#8217;s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
&#8220;You realize where this is going,&#8221; said Bannon. &#8220;This is all about money laundering. Mueller chose [senior prosecutor Andrew] Weissmannfirst and he is a money-laundering guy. Their path to f***ing Trump goes right through Paul Manafort, Don Jr and Jared Kushner. &#8230; It&#8217;s as plain as a hair on your face. It goes through Deutsche Bank and all the Kushner sh**. The Kushner sh** is greasy. They&#8217;re going to go right through that. They&#8217;re going to roll those two guys up and say play me or trade me.&#8221;
Trump responded Wednesday with a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/25348/trump-levels-strong-accusations-against-former-james-barrett">statement</a> in which he described his former chief strategist as a political charlatan who &#8220;spent his time at the White House leaking false information to the media to make himself seem far more important than he was.&#8221;
&#8220;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,&#8221; said Trump. After blaming Bannon for losing the Senate seat in Alabama for the Republicans because of his endorsement of Roy Moore, Trump said, &#8220;Steve doesn&#8217;t represent my base &#8212; he&#8217;s only in it for himself.&#8221; The statement effectively destroyed Bannon&#8217;s credibility as a voice for Trumpism, which was how he had tried to portray himself after returning to Breitbart.
Over the next few days, reports that one of Bannon&#8217;s primary financial backers and a key stake-holder at Breitbart, Rebekah Mercer, had cut ties with him in November suggested that his time at the company was likely coming to a swift end. &#8220;I support President Trump and the platform upon which he was elected,&#8221; Mercer said in a statement. &#8220;My family and I have not communicated with Steve Bannon in many months and have provided no financial support to his political agenda, nor do we support his recent actions and statements.&#8221;
Bannon issued a partial <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/25478/too-late-sloppy-steve-bannon-issues-groveling-joseph-curl">apology</a> on Sunday, expressing regret for failing to respond quickly enough to the quotes featured in Wolff&#8217;s book and insisting that he still stood firmly behind Trump&#8217;s agenda. The apology, however, came too late; Trump and his surrogates, including Stephen Miller, had already made clear that the rift was irreparable.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/tags/steve-bannon">Bannon</a> became chairman of Breitbart in 2012 after the untimely death of Andrew Breitbart. He joined the Trump campaign as its chairman in mid-August 2016 for its final three months and was a member of the transition team after the electoral victory. Trump appointed Bannon White House chief strategist, a position he held for about seven months. He parted ways with the administration on August 18, 2017. Trump says he fired Bannon; <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/19922/bannon-out-prepare-war-ben-shapiro">Bannon insists he resigned</a>.
After breaking with the administration, Bannon returned to Breitbart as chairman, a position he held until his resignation a little over four months later.
Related:
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/25601/breitbart-news-just-fired-steve-bannon-its-good-ben-shapiro">Breitbart News Just FIRED Steve Bannon. It&#8217;s A Good Day For Andrew Breitbart&#8217;s Legacy.</a>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/8441/i-know-trumps-new-campaign-chairman-steve-bannon-ben-shapiro">I Know Trump&#8217;s New Campaign Chairman, Steve Bannon. Here&#8217;s What You Need To Know.</a>
This article has been revised and expanded for clarity.

Bannon Out At Breitbart

Andrew Breitbart

Breitbart

Donald Trump

Steve Bannon

Trump Administration

On Thursday afternoon, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/breitbart-owners-debate-ousting-bannon-amid-trump-feud-1515100110">The Wall Street Journal</a> reported that former White House chief strategist and Breitbart News chairman Steve Bannon could be ousted from the publication he runs. That revelation follows President Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/25343/trump-sets-bannon-fire-uses-ashes-fertilize-his-ben-shapiro">nuking Bannon from orbit</a> over Bannon&#8217;s statements that the Trump family had acted in &#8220;treasonous&#8221; and criminal fashion. According to the Journal:
<blockquote>
Mr. Bannon&#8217;s longtime benefactors, billionaires Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah Mercer, are actively distancing from him even before the expected release of Michael Wolff&#8217;s book &#8220;Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,&#8221; according to two people close to the Mercers.
They and other Breitbart News Network LLC board members on Thursday were debating whether to oust Mr. Bannon as chairman, with many supportive of the move, according to a person familiar with the exchanges. Among the considerations are Breitbart&#8217;s contractual relationships with other entities, including Sirius XM radio, that involve Mr. Bannon.
Staffers at Breitbart, which Mr. Bannon has called his &#8220;killing machine,&#8221; described a &#8220;chaotic&#8221; day at the company, with writers&#8212;many personally recruited by Mr. Bannon&#8212;wondering whether he would last the day.
</blockquote>
This isn&#8217;t a shock after White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders suggested that Breitbart should look at ousting Bannon.
Bannon&#8217;s role at Breitbart News was always unclear. He had been making a documentary about Andrew Breitbart when Andrew died, but that was the extent of his involvement in Breitbart before being asked to chair the company by Andrew&#8217;s business partner and best friend, Larry Solov, over the objections of many. Bannon transformed Breitbart from a culture-oriented site directed at debunking mainstream media narratives into an alt-right promoting political weapon directed at destroying Bannon&#8217;s enemies and puffing up Bannon&#8217;s allies.
Bannon has now been largely isolated &#8212; his monetary base of support, the Mercer family, reportedly dumped him weeks ago; his political base of support is gone with Trump&#8217;s evisceration yesterday; his media base of support still exists for those willing to provide a forum for his leaks, but the conservative media landscape correctly <a href="https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2018/01/04/day-4-2018-americas-anchorman-returns-to-kick-off-the-year/">turned on Bannon today as well</a>, with Rush Limbaugh and Matt Drudge leading the way.
So, what exactly does Bannon continue to bring to the table for Breitbart?
His original mission outside the White House could have been to continue to use Breitbart as a vehicle for Trump&#8217;s goals, but Bannon wasn&#8217;t willing to subsume his own agenda to that end. He could have broken from the White House and tried to become an honest broker for Bannonite pseudo-philosophy, but that would have necessitated criticism of Trump, which Breitbart News readers won&#8217;t abide.
Now, none of those options are available. Bannon is far more of a liability than an asset: he doesn&#8217;t have the ear of the Breitbart-investing Mercers, he doesn&#8217;t have the ear of the White House, and he doesn&#8217;t have the ear of the base.
The only person whose ear he could presumably have is Solov. That&#8217;s unjustifiable, and it always was. Bannon has subverted Breitbart&#8217;s legacy and morphed the site into a reflection of his own ego; just weeks ago, the website of Andrew Breitbart was selling Steve Bannon fidget spinners. Now Bannon must be pleading with the board for his life, claiming this will all blow over. But that&#8217;s not the question anymore. The question is what Steve Bannon adds to Breitbart. And the answer is: nothing. And he subtracts good sense, conservative philosophy, and all decency.

Report: Breitbart News Board Considers Dumping Bannon. They’d Be Fools Not To Do So.

On Wednesday, former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon tore into his former boss, President Trump, as well as Trump&#8217;s son Donald Jr. and his son-in-law Jared Kushner. He also backhandedly swiped his own publication, Breitbart News, and dumped all over the entire Trump campaign.
All in a day&#8217;s work for that supremely loyal aide to the Great Man Himself.
Bannon spoke with author Michael Wolff for Wolff&#8217;s new book; that book has now been reported by The Guardian. Bannon told Wolff that Robert Mueller&#8217;s investigation would &#8220;crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV.&#8221; He stated that Donald Jr.&#8217;s campaign meeting with a lawyer associated with the Russian government was &#8220;treasonous, or unpatriotic, or bad s***,&#8221; and added that Trump Jr. and associates &#8220;should have called the FBI immediately.&#8221; Bannon&#8217;s shocking turn toward advocacy for transparency is a far cry from his statements on 60 Minutes last year, when he called the Russia investigation a &#8220;farce&#8221; and a &#8220;waste of time.&#8221; Suddenly, after Bannon becomes just another political loser hanging around the fringes of power, he has a change of heart. (Worth noting: Bannon wasn&#8217;t on the campaign at the time of the meeting, so he has no insider knowledge of what happened there.)
Hilariously, Bannon went on to tell Wolff that such a meeting should have occurred &#8220;in a Holiday Inn in Manchester, New Hampshire, with your lawyers who meet with these people,&#8221; and information should then have been &#8220;dump[ed] &#8230; down to Breitbart or something like that, or maybe some other more legitimate publication.&#8221;
It&#8217;s certainly hilarious to hear Bannon, the chairman of Breitbart News, admit that he&#8217;s turned the publication into an illegitimate one. But it&#8217;s puzzling that Bannon thinks the meeting would become non-treasonous if it were leaked to the media.
Then again, Bannon was the leakiest faucet at the White House, too.
Bannon went on to tell Wolff that the investigation would eventually center on Jared Kushner, Trump&#8217;s son-in-law: &#8220;You realize where this is going. This is all about money laundering. Mueller chose [senior prosecutor Andrew] Weissman first and he is a money-laundering guy. Their path to f***ing Trump goes right through Paul Manafort, Don Jr. and Jared Kushner&#8230;It&#8217;s as plain as a hair on your face&#8230;It goes through Deutsche Bank and all the Kushner s***. The Kushner s*** is greasy. They&#8217;re going to go right through that. They&#8217;re going to roll those two guys up and say play me or trade me&#8230;They&#8217;re sitting on a beach trying to stop a Category Five.&#8221;
Odd how according to Bannon, the investigation will hit all of his personal enemies.
None of this is a surprise coming from a leech on the ass of power, a man who rode Michele Bachmann&#8217;s coattails to Sarah Palin&#8217;s coattails to Andrew Breitbart&#8217;s coattails to Donald Trump&#8217;s and the Mercer family&#8217;s coattails. It&#8217;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&#8217;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&#8217;t funding his side projects anymore) and the political side (he&#8217;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&#8217;t going well &#8212; it turns out endorsing a credibly accused child molester and then utilizing your publication to dig up dirt on the accusers doesn&#8217;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.
Bannon&#8217;s utterly full of crap on virtually every level, of course. He always has been. But his comments are going to cause a whole new round of headaches for the Trump administration, since the media have insisted from the outset that Bannon is far more important than he has ever actually been.

#WAR: Bannon Goes To War With Trump, Calls Trump-Russia Campaign Activities ‘Treasonous’

Jared Kushner

On Wednesday evening, CNN reported that Breitbart News chairman Steve Bannon had finally disassociated from their onetime chosen candidate to dethrone Paul Ryan in his Congressional seat, Paul Nehlen. According to Arthur Schwartz, a Bannon advisor, &#8220;Nehlen is dead to us.&#8221;
It took long enough. And it came after Bannon spoke at a rally for credibly accused child molester Roy Moore in Alabama just two weeks ago. Breitbart News has yet to write an article about Nehlen&#8217;s recent penchant for tweeting out blatant anti-Semitic tropes. Nehlen responded to Breitbart&#8217;s disassociation by essentially calling them globalists, a rich reward for the site that popularized the term:
<blockquote>
Putting America First above all other nations, such as being pro-wall and for freedom of lawful speech, has brought a coordinated attack by globalists from both parties; nevertheless I will continue to stand strong against anti-American sentiment, however it manifests.
</blockquote>
Here&#8217;s the problem: Nehlen&#8217;s been painting in various hues of unhinged nuttery for months now, as Lachlan Markay of The Daily Beast traced on December 7. In early December, Nehlen retweeted someone calling Muslims &#8220;towel heads.&#8221; He also labeled a Muslim &#8220;Achmed&#8221; and a black man &#8220;Tyrone.&#8221; He suggested that God should punish California with a massive earthquake for its status as &#8220;Sodom and Gomorrah.&#8221; He stated that Gabby Giffords should have outdrawn her shooter.
Nothing from Breitbart.
In recent days, Nehlen has begun tweeting out pictures of an anti-Semitic book he&#8217;s reading, as well as tropes about American foreign policy putting Israel first. He&#8217;s retweeted &#8220;anuddah shoah&#8221; jokes, favorites among the anti-Semitic alt-right, and he&#8217;s told Commentary magazine editor John Podhoretz to &#8220;eat a bullet.&#8221;
And <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/paul-ryans-primary-opponent-paul-nehlen-retweeted-alt-right-celebrations-of-charlottesville-rallies-embraced-pizzagate/article/2631612">back in August</a>, he retweeted a series of images from the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. For good measure, he celebrated the unsupported Pizzagate conspiracy theory.
Nothing from Breitbart.
Finally, when CNN&#8217;s Jake Tapper began pushing Breitbart, they backed down:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Book blaming Jews for anti-Semitism, written by the Neo-Nazi movement&#8217;s fave &#8220;academic,&#8221; being pushed by Breitbart favorite Paul Nehlen. <a href="https://t.co/TbGJRq1Bnj">https://t.co/TbGJRq1Bnj</a>
&#8212; Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) <a href="https://twitter.com/jaketapper/status/946001133981577218?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 27, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
Then Breitbart ran a piece <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/12/27/fake-tapper-very-fake-news-anchor-leads-re-ignition-of-cnn-scandal/">smacking Tapper</a>. Of course.
This isn&#8217;t anything new for Breitbart. This is the same outlet whose leader, Bannon, declared Milo Yiannopoulos, another <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/milo/2016/08/08/paul-ryans-alt-conservatism/">Nehlen fan</a>, &#8220;dead to me&#8221; last year &#8212; after boosting him with cash and publicity for months following Yiannopoulos&#8217; open embrace of the alt-right. Bannon himself called Breitbart &#8220;the platform for the alt-right.&#8221;
The connection doesn&#8217;t stop there. Yiannopoulos wrote a piece glorifying the anti-Semitic alt-right and deliberately championing Nehlen as one of their emissaries last year:
<blockquote>
Ryan is also frightened of the alt-right because he knows they can&#8217;t be contained. His primary opponent, Paul Nehlen, shares many of their positions&#8212; <a href="https://twitter.com/pnehlen/status/761174034541314053" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">just read through Nehlen&#8217;s 39-tweet barrage for a better idea of what he represents.</a> And he&#8217;s likely just the first of a new generation of insurgent candidates with alt-right tendencies.
</blockquote>
So, should we take Breitbart&#8217;s newfound horror at Nehlen particularly seriously? Let&#8217;s take a look at the evidence. These are the same people whose moral scruples led them to send reporters <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/12/20/media/breitbart-alex-marlow-roy-moore/index.html">down to Alabama</a> in an attempt to discredit Roy Moore&#8217;s accusers &#8212; and even Breitbart&#8217;s editor-in-chief Alex Marlow now admits that he believes that the woman who accused Moore of molesting her when she was 14 &#8220;had a lot of credibility.&#8221; These are the same folks who use globes around particular names, leading their own editor-at-large, Joel Pollak, to admit that he&#8217;s not fond of the term &#8220;globalist&#8221; because &#8220;it&#8217;s similar to the kind of thing that people have said in the past when they want to target minorities&#8230;Yeah, I don&#8217;t like the globe.&#8221;
Breitbart News isn&#8217;t an anti-Semitic outlet. But they&#8217;re certainly willing to hobnob with anti-Semites and societal dregs whom Steve Bannon believes can benefit him. And that&#8217;s not going to stop just because they got caught with their pants around their ankles with Paul Nehlen. Andrew Breitbart would be ashamed of what the publication bearing his name has become.

Breitbart and Bannon: Anti-Semite Nehlen ‘Dead To Us.’ Here’s Why Nobody Should Take Their Disavowal Seriously.

Paul Nehlen

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) buried Stephen Bannon at a press conference on Friday, blaming him for the Republican&#8217;s loss in Alabama&#8217;s special election to fill Jeff Sessions&#8217; Senate seat.
A reporter had asked McConnell if he blamed Bannon for Democrat Doug Jones winning the special election in Alabama, prompting McConnell to throw a punch at the Breitbart executive.
&#8220;Well, let me just say this: The political genius on display throwing away a seat in the reddest state in America is hard to ignore,&#8221; McConnell said.
McConnell, along with the majority of Senate Republicans, endorsed Luther Strange for the Senate seat and had warned that Roy Moore would have a hard time winning.
On September 22, President Donald Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/24620/flashback-trump-predicted-roy-moore-would-lose-michael-j-knowles">predicted</a> that Moore would lose the Senate race as he campaigned for Strange:
<blockquote>
I have to say this, and you understand this and just look at the polls. Luther will definitely win. Roy has a very good chance of not winning in the general election. It&#8217;s all about the general. Don&#8217;t forget, we don&#8217;t stop here. You have an election coming up the day this is over. So this is over on Tuesday. On Wednesday morning, the new race begins. You&#8217;ve got to beat a Democrat. Luther is going to win easily and Roy&#8217;s going to have a hard time winning.
</blockquote>
McConnell said that he and other Republican leaders will be active in GOP primaries in 2018 to prevent a repeat of past elections where poor candidates defeated rivals from the GOP establishment in primaries, only to be crushed in general elections.
&#8220;I and people who are allied with me &#8212; and I believe the White House will be in the same place I am &#8212; want to nominate people who can actually win,&#8221; McConnell said.
WATCH:
<div class="embed video fluid-video">
<blockquote data-lang="en">
&#8220;The political genius on display of throwing away a seat in the reddest state in America is hard to ignore.&#8221; &#8211; Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell when asked about Steve Bannon and losing Alabama seat. <a href="https://t.co/N6Qex5nGqV">pic.twitter.com/N6Qex5nGqV</a>
&#8212; CSPAN (@cspan) <a href="https://twitter.com/cspan/status/944245406711648257?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 22, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>

WATCH: Mitch McConnell Slams ‘Political Genius’ Steve Bannon

Alabama

Mitch McConnell

Republican Party

Roy Moore

&#8220;Absolutely,&#8221; replied Breitbart News&#8217; Executive Chair Stephen Bannon when asked if he is &#8220;going to war&#8221; with the &#8220;Republican establishment,&#8221; led by Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
CBS&#8217; Charlie Rose interviewed Bannon for 60 Minutes. Watch the interview below.
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe frameborder="0" height="100%" width="100%"></iframe></div>
The &#8220;Republican establishment,&#8221; said Bannon, opposed President Donald Trump&#8217;s political agenda:
<blockquote>
They do not want Donald Trump&#8217;s populist economic nationlist agenda to be implemented. It&#8217;s very obvious. It&#8217;s as obvious as night follows day. &#8230;
They do not support the president&#8217;s program. It&#8217;s an open secret on Capitol Hill. Everyone in this city knows it.
The swamp is 50 years in the making. Let&#8217;s talk about the swamp. The swamp is a business model. It&#8217;s a successful business model. It&#8217;s a donor, consultant, K Street lobbyist, politician; seven of the nine wealthiest counties in America ring Washington, D.C.
</blockquote>
Bannon elaborated on &#8220;the swamp,&#8221; describing it as a &#8220;permanent political class&#8221;:
<blockquote>
The permanent political class, as represented by both parties. You&#8217;re not gonna drain that in eight months. You&#8217;re not gonna drain it in two terms. This is gonna take ten, fifteen, twenty years of relentlessly going after it.
</blockquote>
&#8220;Embracing the establishment,&#8221; said Bannon, was the Trump administration&#8217;s &#8220;original sin.&#8221; &#8220;I actually agreed with the decision,&#8221; he added, noting his own involvement.
The Trump administration and Republican Party are unwise to address the Obama administration&#8217;s executive direction for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), said Bannon, recommending that such an issue be addressed later in the president&#8217;s term after other objectives are achieved. 
Aliens classified by DACA should not be amnestied or offered a &#8220;pathway to citizenship,&#8221; said Bannon, &#8220;I think what we have to do is focus on American citizens.&#8221; Rose hyped DACA as a moral policy aligned with American history.
Bannon says he supports &#8220;economic nationalism,&#8221; indirectly invoking the &#8220;America First&#8221; slogan of Trump&#8217;s presidential campaign and administration: 
<blockquote>
America was built on her citizens. Look at the 19th century, what built America is called the American system, from Hamilton to Polk to Henry Clay to Lincoln to the Roosevelts; a system of protection of our manufacturing, a financial system that lends to our manufacturers, okay, and a control of our border. Economic nationalism, it&#8217;s what this country was built on. The American system, right? We go back to that. We look after our own. We look after our citizens. We look after our manufacturing base. And guess what? This country&#8217;s gonna be greater, more united, more powerful than it&#8217;s ever been. This is not astrophysics. And by the way, that&#8217;s every nationality, every race, every religion, every sexual preference. As long as you&#8217;re a citizen of our country, as long as you&#8217;re an American citizen, you&#8217;re part of this economic populist nationalist movement.
</blockquote>
Rose derided Breitbart News as promoting the &#8220;alt-right&#8221; and &#8220;conspiracy theories&#8221; during his introductory monologue. He presents himself as a politically objective and non-partisan news media figure.
Follow Robert Kraychik on <a href="https://twitter.com/kr3ch3k">Twitter</a>.

Bannon: Absolutely ‘Going To War’ With McConnell/Ryan

Charlie Rose

Economy

Media

Media Bias

On Friday, Drudge Report scooped The New York Times and reported that White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who also served as Trump&#8217;s chief campaign strategist in the latter months of the campaign, is out at the White House. According to the Times, Bannon submitted his resignation to Trump on August 7, but the announcement of his ouster was delayed until today thanks to the events in Charlottesville. Bannon claims that he&#8217;s leaving voluntarily; Trump&#8217;s aides insist he&#8217;s being fired. It doesn&#8217;t really matter much &#8212; Trump obviously sidelined Bannon in favor of a wide variety of characters ranging from Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump to HR McMaster and John Kelly. Bannon&#8217;s influence had waned.
But Bannon still had his connections to the Mercer family, Trump&#8217;s top funders, and so Trump couldn&#8217;t overtly dump him. It would make sense that Bannon finally got tired of being a marginal player and wanted out.
That also makes sense of Bannon&#8217;s behavior over the last week: he&#8217;s preparing for the possibility of war with Trump.
Bannon is deeply vengeful, and supremely ambitious. He has already held the most powerful job he will ever have &#8212; unless, of course, his new job is to destroy Trump from the outside. And he set the groundwork for that job over the past week.
First, he pushed Trump not to alienate the alt-right &#8212; Bannon&#8217;s base &#8212; and succeeded. Bannon was widely credited in the media with encouraging Trump&#8217;s bizarre Tuesday press conference, at which Trump rehabilitated the alt-right and said there were &#8220;very fine people&#8221; protesting with white supremacists in Charlottesville. Trump could have easily carved off the alt-right and not lost much; Bannon, however, had to keep them in his pocket. Without them, he is merely another former government employee searching for a home. With them, he can threaten Trump with political Armageddon.
Second, he gave an insane interview with The American Prospect that isn&#8217;t insane at all in retrospect. In that interview, he laid out his own foreign policy and contrasted it with Trump&#8217;s &#8212; a fully isolationist foreign policy that the Trump administration almost certainly will not pursue, a militant and protectionist foreign policy with regard to trade with China, an &#8220;anti-globalist&#8221; policy totally at odds with some of Trump&#8217;s closest advisors like Gary Cohn.
All of this sets up the lines for battle. First, Trump will be seen as caving by &#8220;firing&#8221; Bannon &#8212; and Trump is completely incapable of just admitting that Bannon resigned.
See, for example, Ann Coulter:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Coulter suggests Trump caved to media pressure: <a href="https://t.co/2k8skLbTOi">pic.twitter.com/2k8skLbTOi</a>
&#8212; Michael Calderone (@mlcalderone) <a href="https://twitter.com/mlcalderone/status/898595470162837504">August 18, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
Bannon&#8217;s play for Trump&#8217;s populist and alt-right bases will be partially successful. Outside the White House, Bannon can be more powerful than he was inside: if Trump doesn&#8217;t do what Bannon likes, Bannon will declare that he was ousted because the globalist insiders have taken over, and Trump has sold out the base. Bannon will attempt to claim the leadership of the movement he believes he built.
And he&#8217;ll do so from his platform at Breitbart.
That makes sense, since no one else will have him. There&#8217;s no interest in him from any of the major conservative think tanks: he&#8217;s toxic, he works poorly with others, and he&#8217;s utterly self-promoting. He has no real political future in electoral politics: he&#8217;s unattractive, deeply disliked across the country, and widely perceived as a class A a**hole. But that doesn&#8217;t matter for the people Breitbart has been catering to for more than a year. They see Bannon as their champion, and in leaving now and under these circumstances, Bannon has set himself up admirably as a Trumpian foil.
Bannon is also media savvy enough to know that he&#8217;ll never miss work being a Trump critic. The media will continue to book him. They&#8217;ll be eager to put him on television to criticize Trump; they think this will drive down Trump&#8217;s approval ratings. And Bannon will look for some other horse to back, or try to become the horse himself.
I said one year ago that Bannon understands that in the game of thrones, you win or die; he doesn&#8217;t intend to die. Now that he&#8217;s been beheaded by Trump, look for him to try to become the Night King, leaving destruction in his wake.

BANNON OUT: PREPARE FOR WAR

Bill Maher postured as a supporter of free speech and expression during last week&#8217;s episode of Real Time on HBO.

&#8220;Let&#8217;s go to free speech, because that&#8217;s something we both care about,&#8221; said Maher to Breitbart&#8217;s editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow on Friday, &#8220;And I think it&#8217;s under attack from so many quarters in this country.&#8221;

Threats to free speech, said Maher, come from President Donald Trump, corporations, and religion:

<blockquote>
&#8220;[Free speech is] under attack on campuses. It&#8217;s under attack by Donald Trump, who threatens reporters all the time. And it&#8217;s under attack, as I&#8217;m sure you know, by corporations.
 &#8230;
It&#8217;s also under attack with religion.&#8221;
</blockquote>
Maher made no mention of state restrictions of the First Amendment in listing his perceived threats to the rights to free speech and expression. Also ignored were left-wing and Democratic proposals to repeal the First Amendment. He offered no commentary on leftism&#8217;s cultural and institutional spread as a stifling force upon free speech and expression.

Despite posturing as a supporter of free speech and expression, Maher supports state restrictions on the disposal of property toward political speech and expression.

Maher has <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvqv9j0rfb0">repeatedly criticized</a> the Supreme Court&#8217;s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, in which a 5-4 vote <a href="http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/citizens-united-v-federal-election-commission/">held</a> that the federal government cannot restrict corporations or unions from spending money to support or criticize candidates for elected office.

On September 11 of 2014, Senate Democrats <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/senate-joint-resolution/19/all-actions?overview=closed&amp;q=%7B%22roll-call-vote%22%3A%22all%22%7D">voted unanimously</a> to rewrite the First Amendment, seeking to empower Congress to restrict political speech and expression under the guise of cleansing politics of corruption.

The Democrats&#8217; <a href="https://www.congress.gov/113/bills/sjres19/BILLS-113sjres19is.pdf">proposed rewriting</a> of the First Amendment reads as follows:

<blockquote>
Section 1. To advance democratic self-government and political equality, and to protect the integrity of government and the electoral process, Congress and the States may regulate and set reasonable limits on the raising and spending of money by candidates and others to influence elections.
Section 2. Congress and the States shall have power to implement and enforce this article by appropriate legislation, and may distinguish between natural persons and corporations or other artificial entities created by law, including by prohibiting such entities from spending money to influence elections.
Section 3. Nothing in this article shall be construed to grant Congress or the States the power to abridge the freedom of the press.
</blockquote>
Democrats frame their push to rewrite the First Amendment as a response to the Supreme Court&#8217;s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.

Despite free speech and expression being incompatible with leftism, Marlow claimed that some leftists support free speech:

<blockquote>
&#8220;People on the left and the right who are free speech advocates need to come together right now and say, &#8216;The corporations are not going to define the First Amendment and free speech in this country.&#8217;&#8221;
</blockquote>

Follow Robert Kraychik on <a href="https://twitter.com/kr3ch3k">Twitter</a>.
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe loading="lazy" width="480" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GKgdzY5_UQ8?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>

Bill Maher Pretends To Support Free Speech

Bill Maher

Democratic Party

First Amendment

Free Speech

The conspiracy theory that Seth Rich was murdered over his supposed ties to WikiLeaks was revived when a Fox report purportedly substantiated those claims, but the report was <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/16534/confusing-and-improbable-seth-rich-murder-turned-frank-camp">quickly debunked</a>. And yet, a number of people on the Right continue to perpetuate the conspiracy theory, which is simply reprehensible.
Here is a roundup of those on the Right perpetuating this ridiculous conspiracy theory.
Sean Hannity.
Hannity has become one of the more vocal and well-known proponents of the conspiracy theory; he had the source of the Fox report claiming he had seen evidence that Rich was in contact with WikiLeaks. As The Washington Post&#8216;s Dave Weigel <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/05/20/the-seth-rich-conspiracy-shows-how-fake-news-still-works/?utm_term=.d49b9c10c621">pointed out</a>, Hannity didn&#8217;t seem to realize that the source, private investigator Rod Wheeler, was actually walking back his story on-air:
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe loading="lazy" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2J9YfQtqcuA" width="560"></iframe></div>
Hannity has been doubling down on Twitter about the conspiracy theory, reaching fever-pitch levels:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Congress, investigate Seth Rich Murder! <a href="https://twitter.com/JulianAssange">@JulianAssange</a> made comments u need to listen to! If Seth was wiki source, no Trump/Russia collusion <a href="https://t.co/QPHZwypU34">https://t.co/QPHZwypU34</a>
&#8212; Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) <a href="https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/866454097599356929">May 22, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Sue for what?? He was Murdered. Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/JulianAssange">@JulianAssange</a> interview. Maybe <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump">@realDonaldTrump</a> should sue all u snowflakes for lying about him. Lol <a href="https://t.co/XDqhsRCs6k">https://t.co/XDqhsRCs6k</a>
&#8212; Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) <a href="https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/866478848657027073">May 22, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
DNC knows this is 1000% true. An important piece of information. Follow this closely! <a href="https://t.co/ageQdeXBU3">https://t.co/ageQdeXBU3</a>
&#8212; Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) <a href="https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/866940981010214913">May 23, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
A couple of Hannity&#8217;s tweets involve him quote-tweeting Kim Dotcom, whom Hannity <a href="https://twitter.com/seanhannity">seems</a> to be treating as a legitimate source on the matter. However, Dotcom cannot be considered to be a legitimate source.
According to <a href="https://www.wired.com/2012/01/kim-dotcom/">Wired</a>:
<blockquote>
The man once known as Kim Schmitz (and as Kimble, and as Kim Tim Jim Vestor, and finally as Kim Dotcom), now awaiting extradition from New Zealand to face charges of conspiracy, money laundering and copyright crimes in the US, has enveloped his actual life in a cloud of hype and bluster that echo the worst of the dot-com bubble from which he took his new surname. In 2001, the Telegraph called Schmitz &#8220;a PR man&#8217;s nightmare and a journalist&#8217;s dream.&#8221;
</blockquote>
The article also notes that Dotcom &#8220;was convicted of 11 counts of computer fraud, 10 counts of data espionage, and an assortment of other charges&#8221; in 1998 but because he was only 20 years old he received &#8220;a two-year suspended sentence.&#8221;
In other words, the source that Hannity is hyping to prove the Rich conspiracy theory is a man who has been convicted of computer fraud, is facing extradition over a myriad of charges and has a history of puffing his own image.
Not that any of that would matter to Hannity:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Very interesting. My heart is not troubled in the least. Night all. <a href="https://t.co/MgOow2XVYu">https://t.co/MgOow2XVYu</a>
&#8212; Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) <a href="https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/866867980424105988">May 23, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
Well, as long as his heart isn&#8217;t troubled that makes it all fine and dandy.
Gateway Pundit.
This pro-Trump news outlet (and that&#8217;s putting it mildly) has been fanning the flames of the Rich conspiracy theory for quite some time. Here are some examples of some of their headlines on the matter:
<a href="http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/05/police-never-asked-surveillance-video-bar-seth-rich-last-spotted-hours-murder/">Police Never Asked For Surveillance Video From Bar Seth Rich Was Last Spotted Hours Before His Murder</a>
<a href="http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/05/boom-hacker-kim-dotcom-knew-seth-rich-wikileaks-source-involved/">BOOM! Hacker Kim Dotcom: &#8220;I Knew Seth Rich Was the Wikileaks Source &#8211; I Was Involved&#8221; (Updated)</a>
<a href="http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/05/breaking-complete-panic-set-highest-levels-dnc-seth-rich-murder-investigation/">Breaking: &#8216;Complete Panic&#8217; at Highest Levels of DNC Over Kim DotCom&#8217;s Seth Rich Announcement</a>
The funny thing is that in two of those articles, they link to 4Chan and Reddit as legitimate sources. Seriously. The other treats World Net Daily (WND) as a legitimate source, a website that has <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/terry-krepel/worldnetdaily-will-die-on_b_12095292.html">constantly hyped conspiracy theories about Barack Obama&#8217;s birth certificate</a>.
It would certainly explain why the Gateway Pundit has been dubbed the <a href="http://www.redstate.com/jimjamitis/2017/02/26/fake-news-king-gateway-pundit-proves-hes-not-just-bad-reporter-hes-bad-person/">&#8220;Fake News King.&#8221;</a>
Drudge Report.
Drudge seems to be doing their part in perpetuating the Rich conspiracy:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
DEAD DNC STAFFER &#8216;HAD CONTACT&#8217; WITH WIKILEAKS <a href="https://t.co/nhjStpu5Mf">https://t.co/nhjStpu5Mf</a>
&#8212; DRUDGE REPORT (@DRUDGE_REPORT) <a href="https://twitter.com/DRUDGE_REPORT/status/864454442250256384">May 16, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
KIM DOTBOMB: DNC LEAK TO WIKI CAME FROM WITHIN&#8230; <a href="https://t.co/OHA2mlaShX">https://t.co/OHA2mlaShX</a>
&#8212; DRUDGE REPORT (@DRUDGE_REPORT) <a href="https://twitter.com/DRUDGE_REPORT/status/866623770852708353">May 22, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
Drudge even had the Rich story as the banner link on its site:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
So who was pushing the false story about Seth Rich? Well, to begin with: 
-Fox News 
-Breitbart 
-Drudge Report
12/ <a href="https://t.co/hBAtC9XpEA">pic.twitter.com/hBAtC9XpEA</a>
&#8212; Caroline O. (@RVAwonk) <a href="https://twitter.com/RVAwonk/status/864703535115632640">May 17, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
One America News Network (OAN).
OAN produced a lengthy video that hypes the Rich conspiracy theory and treats the now-debunked Fox story as fact as well as perpetuating another conspiracy theory that the Clintons were behind <a href="http://www.snopes.com/un-official-john-ashe-killed-the-day-before-he-was-to-testify-against-hillary-clinton/">the death of former United Nations diplomat John Ashe</a>:
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe loading="lazy" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FAA9Gy2SXdg" width="560"></iframe></div>
Breitbart.
Here are some of their headlines on the matter:
<a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2017/05/16/silence-from-establishment-media-over-seth-rich-wikileaks-report/">Silence from Establishment Media over Seth Rich WikiLeaks Report</a>
<a href="http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2017/05/16/4-unanswered-questions-surrounding-murdered-dnc-staffer-seth-rich/">4 Unanswered Questions Surrounding Murdered DNC Staffer Seth Rich</a>
<a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/05/16/seth-rich-wikileaks-emails-fbi/">Fox News: Seth Rich, Murdered DNC Staffer, &#8216;Leaked Thousands of Internal Emails to WikiLeaks&#8217;</a>
It&#8217;s only fitting that the site that Daily Wire editor-in-chief Ben Shapiro has called <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/8441/i-know-trumps-new-campaign-chairman-steve-bannon-ben-shapiro">&#8220;Trump Pravda&#8221;</a> and panders to the odious alt-right would fan the flames of the Rich conspiracy theory.
Infowars.
It wouldn&#8217;t be a conspiracy theory without Infowars getting in on it:
<a href="https://www.infowars.com/dems-walk-back-trump-impeachment-calls-amid-seth-rich-probe/">DEMS WALK BACK TRUMP IMPEACHMENT CALLS AMID SETH RICH PROBE</a>
<a href="https://www.infowars.com/fbi-has-forensic-evidence-that-ties-wikileaks-to-seth-rich/">FBI HAS FORENSIC EVIDENCE THAT TIES WIKILEAKS TO SETH RICH</a>
<a href="https://www.infowars.com/msm-covers-up-murder-of-dnc-staffer-seth-rich/">MSM COVERS UP MURDER OF DNC STAFFER SETH RICH</a>
Infowars&#8217; Paul Joseph Watson has also been spreading the conspiracy on <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=paul%20joseph%20watson%20seth%20rich&amp;src=typd">Twitter</a>.
<div class="embed tweet"></div>
World Net Daily.
WND, which also has a reputation for pushing conspiracy theories, is naturally pushing the Rich one as well:
<a href="http://www.wnd.com/2017/05/bombshell-donna-brazile-probing-seth-rich-murder-says-private-eye/">BOMBSHELL: DONNA BRAZILE WARNED OFF PRIVATE EYE ON SETH RICH MURDER</a>
<a href="http://www.wnd.com/2017/05/chilling-similarities-between-seth-rich-murder-and-clinton-body-count-victims/">CHILLING SIMILARITIES BETWEEN SETH RICH MURDER AND &#8216;CLINTON BODY COUNT&#8217; VICTIMS</a>
<a href="http://www.wnd.com/2017/05/news-media-in-blackout-mode-over-seth-rich-revelations/">NEWS MEDIA BLACKOUT OVER SETH RICH REVELATIONS</a>
The conspiracy theories that the Clintons have murdered others has been pervasive among some of the Right for quite some time, but <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/8303/how-many-clinton-associates-have-died-over-years-aaron-bandler">there is zero evidence linking the Clintons to any murders</a>.
Bill Mitchell.
The Trump cultist has repeatedly called for <a href="https://twitter.com/mitchellvii/status/864465923436105728">a special prosecutor</a> to investigate the Rich murder on Twitter.
Mike Cernovich.
Like Hannity, Cernovich has been vocal about the Rich conspiracy theory on <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=mike%20cernovich%20seth%20rich&amp;src=typd">Twitter</a> and is pushing Dotcom as a legitimate source.
<div class="embed tweet"></div>
In a prior <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/16561/7-things-you-need-know-about-seth-rich-murder-aaron-bandler">list</a>, The Daily Wire put forward the facts surrounding the Rich case and showed that there is nothing to indicate that Rich was in contact with WikiLeaks and that such a theory doesn&#8217;t even make sense, since all evidence points to the DNC and John Podesta&#8217;s emails being hacked. Unfortunately, there are no leads at this point, so it&#8217;s hard to know for sure what happened on the night of Rich&#8217;s murder, but the police&#8217;s belief that it was a botched robbery does make the most sense, even if nothing was taken from Rich, because the conspiracy theorists seem to be unaware that a botched robbery means it was a robbery gone wrong.
But that doesn&#8217;t matter to those perpetuating the Rich conspiracy theory, because they desperately want it to be true in order to prove that Russia didn&#8217;t provide WikiLeaks with those emails, hence proving that there was no collusion between Donald Trump and Russia during the campaign. The Democrats have yet <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/16746/5-reasons-trump-isnt-going-be-impeached-aaron-bandler">to convince the public of such collusion</a>, so there&#8217;s no need for the Right to fight the Democrats&#8217; insanity with their own insanity and worsen the pain of Rich&#8217;s grieving family.
<a href="https://twitter.com/bandlersbanter">Follow Aaron Bandler on Twitter.</a>

Is The Right Falling For Another Fake News Hoax With Seth Rich?

Infowars

Matt Drudge

Sean Hannity

Seth Rich

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDFiqBxEeqw">On Wednesday</a>, CNN&#8217;s Jim Acosta accused President Donald Trump of undermining the First Amendment via criticisms of the news media industry. Joining a panel discussion at the Newseum entitled &#8220;Covering the Trump White House,&#8221; he blamed Trump for broad public distrust of the news media.

Criticizing CNN and similar news media outlets, suggested Acosta, was antithetical to American values. In defending his employer&#8217;s journalistic bona fides, Acosta invoked White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon&#8217;s derision of CNN as part of the &#8220;opposition party&#8221; (emphases added):

<blockquote>
&#8220;As much as people wanna beat up on CNN, and go after CNN, and &#8216;CNN sucks&#8217; and that sort of thing, what [Breitbart News] does, I was with Steve Bannon the other day where he referred to us as the opposition party, once again. We&#8217;re not the opposition party. We are just trying to get at the truth. And when you have a side of the news media that just insists time and again that CNN is out to get the president or out to get certain people in this country, I think it just does a tremendous disservice to all Americans. I don&#8217;t think it is American to go after a segment of the news media.&#8221;
</blockquote>
Acosta then lamented what he described as a lack of political congeniality across America, framing himself and his employer as agents in furtherance of national political unity:

<blockquote>
&#8220;We have got to get to a point in this country when we&#8217;re not demonizing one another and going after each other and cutting each other&#8217;s throats because we don&#8217;t agree with one another.&#8221;
</blockquote>
After saying that Americans &#8211; both Democrats and Republicans &#8211; need to trust their news media industry, Acosta suggested that undermining trust in news media outlets such as CNN amounts to an attack on the First Amendment:
<blockquote>
&#8220;The president has to understand that he is doing real damage to what we do. He is doing real damage to the First Amendment in this country when he refers to the news media as the <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/832708293516632065">enemies of the people</a>.

&#8230;

We need people to trust us. And I believe that [CNN and the broader news media have] been acting in a way that garners that trust.&#8221;
</blockquote>
At no point in the discussion did Acosta acknowledge widespread left-wing and partisan Democrat biases at CNN and across the broader news media landscape.

Acosta presents himself as a politically neutral and non-partisan news media figure. CNN likewise presents itself as a politically neutral and non-partisan news media outlet, marketing itself as &#8220;The Most Trusted Name In News.&#8221;

In January, Acosta described CNN as a news media outlet &#8220;<a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/12980/acosta-cnn-dogged-pursuit-truth-robert-kraychik">in dogged pursuit of the truth</a>,&#8221; <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/12976/fleischer-vs-acosta-throw-down-media-bias-robert-kraychik">denying</a> the existence of widespread left-wing and partisan Democrat biases across the news media landscape.
Watch the panel discussion below:

<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe loading="lazy" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CDFiqBxEeqw" width="640"></iframe></div>
Follow Robert Kraychik on <a href="https://twitter.com/kr3ch3k">Twitter</a>.

Acosta: Dissing CNN ‘Does Real Damage’ To First Amendment

Bret Baier

Jim Acosta

On Wednesday, White House chief strategist Steve Bannon was removed from President Trump&#8217;s National Security Council (NSC), according to a regulatory filing cited by <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-04-05/bannon-removed-from-national-security-council-role-in-shakeup?cmpid=socialflow-twitter-business&amp;utm_content=business&amp;utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social">Bloomberg</a>. The shakeup also affected Homeland Security Adviser, Tom Bossert, whose role was downgraded after National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster was granted sole agenda-setting power over the NSC.
&#8220;Under the move, the national intelligence director, Dan Coats, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford, are again &#8216;regular attendees&#8217; of the NSC&#8217;s principals committee,&#8221; reports Bloomberg.
Trump drew staunch criticism from both the Left and the Right as well as non-partisan foreign policy experts when he selected a political appointee with minimal experience in security matters to serve on a body tasked with assessing national security threats alongside the Commander-in-Chief.
Bannon, a former Breitbart executive, won favor with Trump after turning the far-right website into a propaganda arm of the Trump campaign. The website catered to perhaps the most disturbing elements of the Trump coalition, including the notoriously racist alt-right ethno-nationalist movement. At one point, Bannon even <a href="http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/trailguide/la-na-trailguide-updates-what-is-the-alt-right-a-refresher-1479169663-htmlstory.html">referred</a> to Breitbart as a &#8220;platform for the alt&#8211;right.&#8221; 

According to a senior White House official, Bannon was only granted a spot on the NSC to babysit the now-disgraced National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn, and reverse the policies of Susan &#8220;Benghazi&#8221; Rice, formerly President Obama&#8217;s deputy National Security Adviser. Notably, the same official claims that Bannon never actually attended an NSC meeting.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
sr WH official tells me Bannon was only on NSC to keep an eye on Flynn &amp; &#8220;de-operationalize NSC from Rice&#8221; &amp; that he never went to a meeting
&#8212; Rosie Gray (@RosieGray) <a href="https://twitter.com/RosieGray/status/849648807138783232">April 5, 2017</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
&#8220;Job done,&#8221; source says.
&#8212; Rosie Gray (@RosieGray) <a href="https://twitter.com/RosieGray/status/849649386963558401">April 5, 2017</a></blockquote>
Flynn left his post after allegedly lying to Vice President Mike Pence and other key administration officials about his contacts with Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak. Flynn <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/10/politics/flynn-russia-us-sanctions-reports/">reportedly</a> discussed the prospect of lifting U.S. sanctions on Russia over its imperialistic land-grab in Crimea. The unethical communications allegedly occurred prior to Trump&#8217;s election victory, raising disturbing questions about Flynn&#8217;s commitment to U.S. national security interests. For his part, Trump has claimed that he had no knowledge of Flynn&#8217;s communications with Kremlin officials.
However, White House officials now say that they have always had concerns about Flynn and his presence on the NSC.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
Same official says the president made the decision, this was the deal from the beginning, and &#8220;we all knew Flynn had issues&#8221;
&#8212; Rosie Gray (@RosieGray) <a href="https://twitter.com/RosieGray/status/849649922903289857">April 5, 2017</a></blockquote>
If this is the case, the obvious question here is: why choose Flynn to begin with? Why give a man <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/04/donald-trump-2016-russia-today-rt-kremlin-media-vladimir-putin-213833">with financial links to the Kremlin</a> access to classified and top secret national security information?
Since resigning, Flynn has registered as a foreign agent for the government of Turkey. In addition, a Congressional probe has been initiated to disentangle Flynn&#8217;s web of connections to Moscow.
If anything, Bannon&#8217;s abrupt departure from the NSC generates more questions than answers. Was he really just a glorified babysitter this entire time?

Bannon Removed From National Security Council. White House Says He Was Just A Glorified Babysitter Paid To Look After Flynn.

Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster

Michael Flynn

National Security

Russia

Russia Today

The Mercer family has quietly become one of the most powerful and influential players in politics; they are a key reason that Donald Trump won the White House and had sway over who he selected for his cabinet. They will also be involved in <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/29/politics/mercer-trump-nonprofit/">outside organizations</a> to promote the Trump agenda.
Who is the Mercer family exactly? What is their history in politics and why did they choose to support Trump? Here are six things you need to know:
1. Robert Mercer is the co-chief executive officer of the Renaissance Technologies hedge fund. <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/27/the-reclusive-hedge-fund-tycoon-behind-the-trump-presidency">Mercer</a> initially worked for IBM to utilize computers as translators. He left IBM for Renaissance in 1993 when he finally acquiesced to Nick Patterson&#8217;s repeated requests to join the hedge fund to help pay for college tuition for his three daughters. Renaissance elevated Mercer from being middle-class to enormously wealthy; he reportedly earns a yearly income of <a href="http://www.npr.org/2017/03/22/521083950/inside-the-wealthy-family-that-has-been-funding-steve-bannon-s-plan-for-years">$135 million</a>. He has been described as reclusive, which may be one of the reasons he eschews talking to the press.
2. Mercer has been described as a Ayn Rand-esque libertarian with a searing hatred for the Clintons. David Magerman, a self-described &#8220;centrist&#8221; Democrat who has worked at Renaissance for 20 years, described Mercer&#8217;s views in <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/you-have-to-stop-renaissance-executive-tells-boss-about-trump-support-1487845803">The Wall Street Journal</a> as wanting to reduce the federal government &#8220;to the size of a pinhead.&#8221; Mercer also has a reported disdain for the Clintons, to the point where he subscribes to conspiracy theories about them murdering people.
3. The other Mercer power player is Mercer&#8217;s middle daughter, Rebekah. Rebekah Mercer shares her father&#8217;s affinity for capitalism and a limited federal government as well as his disdain for the media. She became well-known in conservative circles after she gave &#8220;an unsparing critique of the Republican&#8217;s technology and canvassing operations&#8221; to a crowd of GOP donors in the aftermath of Mitt Romney&#8217;s loss in 2012, according to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-rise-of-gop-mega-donor-rebekah-mercer/2016/09/13/85ae3c32-79bf-11e6-beac-57a4a412e93a_story.html?utm_term=.0c92dc7afa04">The Washington Post</a>. She has since served on the boards of various conservative organizations, including The Heritage Foundation. Rebekah is reportedly sharp on political strategy but less well-versed on the nuance of policy.
4. Steve Bannon has been described as the &#8220;Svengali&#8221; of the Mercer family. The Mercer family became connected to Bannon through Andrew Breitbart at a Club for Growth event. Bannon has been close with the Mercer family ever since and has provided them with political strategy. He convinced them to invest $10 million into the Breitbart website. The Mercer family has also been involved with other Bannon initiatives, such as the Government Accountability Institute that produced Peter Schweizer&#8217;s Clinton Cash book.
Bannon and the Mercers might seem like an odd couple given Bannon&#8217;s unabashed nationalism and the Mercer&#8217;s free-market oriented worldview, but they appear to be united by their disdain for the elites, the Clintons and the establishment.
5. The Mercer family initially supported Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). They gave $11 million to pro-Cruz Keep the Promise 1 super PAC; the Cruz campaign also used the Cambridge Analytica data firm funded by the Mercers. They were still Cruz supporters even as Breitbart smeared Cruz while the primary grew contentious between the conservative senator and Trump, but once Cruz dropped out in May, the Mercer family threw their support behind Trump.
6. The Mercer family transformed Trump&#8217;s campaign; their influence can be seen in Trump&#8217;s cabinet. Rebekah Mercer was reportedly the key figure behind convincing Trump to shake up his campaign in the summer by getting rid of Paul Manafort as his campaign manager and bringing aboard Bannon, Kellyanne Conway and David Bossie, the chairman of Citizens United, to the campaign, all of whom have ties to the Mercers. Rebekah Mercer was also on Trump&#8217;s transition team and lobbied successfully for Jeff Sessions as attorney general and Mike Flynn as national security adviser. She also unsuccessfully lobbied for John Bolton to be the secretary of state.
The Mercers have emerged as among the most influential political donors in the country; it will be interesting to see how much of their worldview is adopted by the Trump administration going forward.
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