The word came out as I was grabbing lunch on Friday: sources in the West Wing were saying that Steve Bannon was out. It took another hour or so for the news to be confirmed, that Bannon was either fired or allowed to turn in his resignation. I don’t really care which. As I said last week, I’ve never been on the #FireThatGuy train, just because the rot is coming from the head of the executive branch – while Steve Bannon absolutely deserved to be sh-tcanned, let’s be real: there are literally thousands of people in the White House, Executive Office Building and assorted executive branch departments who all deserve to be fired.
As for why it happened and what happens next… God knows. In the 24 hours following Bannon’s firing, we were gifted with increasingly hysterical and melodramatic stories about how Bannon would “destroy” Trump and Bannon was out for blood and Breitbart was going to “war” with Trump now. Bannon quickly went back to working for Breitbart, which was his employer before Trump. Now that the dust is settled, it seems more likely that Bannon will continue to be pro-Trump and work the Deplorable Cause. As for why Trump fired him… apparently, Trump thought Bannon was a grandstander. Trump did take to Twitter to praise Bannon, which I guess is somewhat surprising – if Bannon wasn’t a white supremacist and an anti-Semite, God knows what Trump would have screeched on Twitter:
I want to thank Steve Bannon for his service. He came to the campaign during my run against Crooked Hillary Clinton – it was great! Thanks S
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 19, 2017
Steve Bannon will be a tough and smart new voice at @BreitbartNews…maybe even better than ever before. Fake News needs the competition!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 19, 2017
“Fake News needs the competition” made me chuckle, because there are few media outlets which feature more “fake news” than Breitbart.
Bannon gave his “exit interview” to the Weekly Standard, saying:
The Trump presidency is over: “The Trump presidency that we fought for, and won, is over. We still have a huge movement, and we will make something of this Trump presidency. But that presidency is over. It’ll be something else. And there’ll be all kinds of fights, and there’ll be good days and bad days, but that presidency is over.”
He planned on announcing his resignation a week ago: “On August 7th , I talked to [Chief of Staff John] Kelly and to the President, and I told them that my resignation would be effective the following Monday, on the 14th. I’d always planned on spending one year. General Kelly has brought in a great new system, but I said it would be best. I want to get back to Breitbart.”
He’s a barbarian. “I feel jacked up. Now I’m free. I’ve got my hands back on my weapons. Someone said, ‘it’s Bannon the Barbarian.’ I am definitely going to crush the opposition. There’s no doubt. I built a f***ing machine at Breitbart. And now I’m about to go back, knowing what I know, and we’re about to rev that machine up. And rev it up we will do.”
I mean…sure. The Republican media echo chamber is a real thing, and Bannon is basically saying he would rather go back to that echo chamber rather than have to deal with the messiness of governance, baseline competency and sanity. Sounds about right.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
My takeaway from Trump’s tweets is that he knows he needs Bannon on-side; the other people he fired just disappeared, but Bannon is someone who could do Trump some real harm. Therefore, sucky tweets.
EXACTLY. Trump would never miss out on the opportunity to kick a man when he’s down. But he is afraid of what Bannon can unleash, once the reality of being ousted by the “establishment” kicks in.
@emma, you are correct, 45 is afraid of what Bannon can do to him because he knows where all the skeletons are buried so he’s making nice with him. Bannon just called 45 and Kim from NK “two arrogant fools”, Bannon called him a fool in print and he’s making nice with him, he’s scared 😳.
Because when all is said and done, tRump is a two-faced gutless wonder, a brown-nosing, bully boy coward . I hope Bannon does unleash. By the way, is Bannon a drunkard? He sure looks like one.
Annakist, yep. He looks like that guy on the bus who smells like liquor and urine. While hardly the worst part of this administration, there has been a notable decrease in the number of attractive or distinguished looking people in our front pages.
@annakist – He DEF looks like an alcoholic. He also looks like a walking STD. The poster boy for syphilis, if you will.
@AnnaKist
That “gutless wonder” remark took my mind immediately to one of my fave lines in the movie “Strictly Ballroom” 🙂
He looks like Johnny Depp at the end of the movie the Libertine.
Or what I imagine Dorian Gray’s bewitched portrait looked like that he hid in the attic because it was so foul.
Yup, he is so transparent.
He fired Bannon or Bannon resigned, big deal, nothing will change. Bannon will be running the white House from the outside. #45 was quick to prais Bannon after the so called firing. I believe Kelly gave #45 the ultimatum of him or Bannon, he told Bannon to go, but keep running the WH from outside. The only time there will be change for the better is when 45 leaves, either by resigning, losing the next election, sickness or impeachment.
Yesterday 45 was quick to tweet that there were many “anti police protestors” who were agitating the the 👮. There were 40,000 peaceful protestors in Boston yesterday, with that many people, it should be expected that a small group of knuckle heads will show up. This was a peaceful protest and was 99.9% peaceful, according to the police. Later 45 had to retract by praising the protestors. , I’m guessing someone told him to retract his first comment. I still remember just last last week #45 saying that he “likes to wait for the fact, not like other
politicians before commenting”, hypocrite.
I agree with your take on this. I think Bannon will just keep up the Trump propaganda from the outside.
Bannon at least won’t be sitting in on ALL of trumps meetings including national security. We also know Trump listens to who in the room at the moment. It does help actually.
Hope this isn’t a giant scam. Bannon could actually be more useful to Trump back at Breitbart.
That is the first thing I thought of when I heard Bannon was going back to Breitbart. Steve may not be working in the White House, but he still can help trump from the outside
No question. He absolutely will help Trump, as he did prior to his WH appointment. As Kaiser said, he’s going back to the “safe space” of the echo chamber, where he doesn’t have to pretend (not that he did) that he gives a f^ck about governance or truth.
Yes, it is a scam. He will simply become an informal advisor like all the other people too deplorable to directly serve Trump.
I agree, just part of the deception.
These people are legends in their own minds. They are more recipients of dumb luck than their own strategic brilliance.
My theory is that the firing happened to change the weekend news cycle. Friday afternoon had headlines of Heather’s mother strongly contradicting Two Scoops’ claims. He knew protests were going to happen Saturday, so there had to be a big counter-headline. Simple (minded) as that.
I have to agree with the “legends in their own minds”. It has become somewhat hilarious. Only Rachel Maddow put it in perspective when she reminded us that Breitbart isn’t very influential in the scheme of things. He is the leader of losers plain and simple.
His quotes were just too over the top Friday evening. When someone has to tell you how powerful, happy, or successful they are — they probably aren’t.
I still think Two Scoops canned him to change the news. Charlottesville aftermath, Corker comments — he wanted something else to watch this weekend (between golf games).
So is Bannon & Brietbart planning to wage all out war on the Republican establishment, Democrats and everyone else they deem the enemy? I also read somewhere that Breitbart was planning on launching a television channel to give FOX competition. Can you imagine a channel worse than FOX? God help us.
Mission accomplished though? I mean, half a year plus of insider status, classified everything, now back on the outside as provocateur? I’d imagine this suits Bannon just fine.
Don’t get me wrong: it’s a good thing he’s out. But he’s still a very poisoned chalice – and now a better-informed one.
And free to do whatever he wants without restriction
Yep. Armed with insider knowledge.
Cosign- and I find it hard to believe he ever really stepped away from that Breitbart trash heap in the first place. It’s a little TOO convenient, all of it.
Bannon was not afforded the power and influence he expected once inside the White House. He is going back to his bull horn in an attempt to rally Trump’s base to advance his own agenda. He is taking a gamble that we all desperately hope will not pay off.
“Knowing what I know ” – he collected information while in the White House and having security clearence. Now he’s gonna use that info in this “barbarian” war he’s gonna wage.
Can Bannon start a grassroots movement to uncouple Trump’s base from the GOP? Could it be a long term strategy for 2020, if Trump fears that the Republicans might drop him at some point? Has Trump endorsed some candidates for local elections and the like? A few mayors on a independent ‘deplorable’ platform?
Does he even care about elections? I don’t think so. Just destabilisation. This election suited him as an information opportunity. But I don’t think he thinks changing the US via legislation (like the hardline GOP people do) is the way to go. He just wants to tear it all down first.
Also don’t forget that weasel Steven Miller in still in the WH.
With the information he had access to as part of the NSC, I’d be concerned. It gives his BS a veneer of truth bc *wink wink nudge nudge* he had access to top government secrets.
I’m honestly confused as to why he was fired. He and Trump are lock step in ideology if not temperament. Why get rid of Bannon but keep Miller and Gorka? Were they too much alike?
Let’s pray some blessings in their way. Blessings in the form of fat laden, cholesterol choked, mega oiled, deep fried cheeseburgerstacos and lots of ice cream and chocolate cake with a mountain of whipped cream.
And maybe even some chronic back pain that requires constant use of addictive painkillers to manage. That interact embarrassingly badly with the celebratory glass of whiskey he drinks shortly before going on air.
Now I’m ashamed of myself for even thinking that.
Actually I wonder if that isn’t already the case. The level of “not there” the president displays is frightening. To me, he often sounds like his mind is going, like he has dementia, or, possibly, he’s overloaded on painkillers. It’s a huge national problem, so……..
YES! 🍞🍔🍔🌮🌮🍗🍗🍦🍦🍦🍦🍩🍟🥓💊💊 and 🥃 is dutch courage, because he’s a gutless twat.
We think alike comrade. I would like to add some liquid beef fat/bacon grease I.Vs 3x daily. Scientists at this very moment are working on ways to disguise pure cholesterol as ice cream.
This is an extremely calculated risk for 45. Bannon is the face of his core Nazi support base, which is pretty much all 45 has going for him now. But I wouldn’t be shocked if this was something Bannon worked out to his benefit- he leaves and is now free to carry on the fascist fight absolutely free of any kind of possible restraint and Orange Bloaty doesn’t have to worry about what it looks like that Liver Spot Bloaty still has a job. With the added benefit of removing the guy everyone says is really running the show. They probably came to an agreement beforehand that they would each get to push the “I quit/he resigned/he was fired” statements as necessary so neither one looked worse than the other.
Bannon by no means becomes less dangerous just because he’s not in the White House. That goon is still pulling the strings.
I don’t think that John Kelly had a hand in firing Bannon. I don’t understand why the press is going along with the narrative that Kelly is the adult in the WH because he is just as complicit and unstable as everyone else in that WH. Bannon was fired for one reason and one reason only. Jared is trying to take over the WH. This isn’t the first time that Jared has convinced The King of Lies and Fake News to fire someone. Comey. Sessions.Mueller. Jared and Ivanka didn’t like that John Kelly was getting all of the praise for firing Bannon, so they leaked an article saying that they were responsible for pushing Bannon out.
If the firing of Bannon was Kelly’s idea, then Miller, Sessions, Gorka, Gorka’s wife, and Chris Koback(the Voter Suppression Commission) would have been fired too.
Roger Stone said that when you think that the WH has fired someone, they really haven’t. They are still working in the WH, but that they are doing it “quietly”. Time will tell. If the Mercers(the money), Bannon, and Kellyanne don’t abandon The King of Lies and Fake News, then we know that Bannon has not really left the WH. What’s the point in firing Bannon, when Miller, Sessions, Gorka, Gorka’s wife, and Kobach are still there? Bannon can still have influence on the WH through them.
There were some press outlets and reporters(Alex Witt and Garret H) who specifically tried to focus on any bad behavior from the counter-protesters. Alex Witt’s entire show was dedicated on this. That is where The King of Lies and Fake News got the “anti-police agitators” from.
The King of Lies and Fake News tweets are still doing the “many sides, many sides” thing. He doesn’t state which protesters he is supporting. Free speech protesters(WS) and the anti-free speech protesters(counter-protesters:BLM, anti F, and many other groups). Every time he says bigotry and hate, he is talking about BLM and Anfi F, not WS. The press need to stop falling for his nonsense and watch closely.
Let’s add nearly all the Republicans in Congress to the list of people who also deserve to be fired.
There were quite a few takes on his departure, but overall I’m not sure how much affect it will have. Yes, Bannon liked chaos, but Trump is the ultimate chaos ringleader.
This is only interesting to me if he turns on Trump.
Bannon is supposed to be the one with a real understanding of Trump’s base, right? So is this a sign that Trump has broken with that base? Bannon’s comment that the Trump presidency is “over” keeps ringing in my ears. . .
No, I don’t think so. I think it’s terrible news Bannon is gone.. He wields much more power with Breitbart. I don’t believe for a minute this wasn’t planned, hence the different narratives.
trump hasn’t broken, he just has to be a bit more careful and bannon will do the dirty work through breitbart now. they planned this, imo, after Charlottesville.
I hear you although don’t you think Bannon was never really gone from Breitbart? Even when he worked in the WH I am sure his fingerprints were still all over their propaganda.
The Living Disease seems to be right back behind his desk already.
According to the very reliable German SPIEGEL online magazine, Breitbart just published an article about how “Spanish police crack gang moving migrants on jet skis.” Only problem: The guy on the jet ski in the picture is neither a smuggler nor a migrant, but a very popular German football/soccer player named Lukas Podolski.
Ouch.
Bannon always looks like he needs a long, soapy bath. He’s so gross! Definitely sounds extremely pissed off about being fired, and I wonder if Trump is worried about secrets Bannon can tell at Breitbarf
Best comment on Twitter: “I command you to heal yourself from the Greyscale” Trump says tearfully to Bannon.
It’s hard making any sense out of the ramblings of two very unstable people in Bannon and Trump. Unsurprising that a sicko like Trump is surrounded by sickos. All babbling, incoherent, delusional, hateful, egomaniacs just like Trump. Class seeks its own level. I hope they destroy each other.
I agree that they are both sick and unstable but I have always found Bannon more frightening because he actually does possess some intelligence and an ideology that would wreak havoc on us all. Trump, imo, just sort of stumbled into it.
Yeah, Bannon is the brains behind that partnership.
I agree. Bannon may have a clear idea of what he wants but he’s completely detached from reality.
Bannon believes that, in a world of 7.5 billion people, his 200,000 radicalized followers are going to make a difference.
He has power over Trump now, but not much else.
Pretty sure Bannon is impotent. Not really related to anything here directly, but his weenie doesn’t work.
Yes, I’ve sunk to this level of immaturity.
Lmao. I love you.
LOL I think you are right.
Robert Mercer who owns Breibart and a data company had dinner with Trump last week and a 5 hour meeting with Bannon on Wednesday. This tells me that they put Bannon on the outside to continue his mission.
Also read NY Times Frank Bruni opinion piece. One of the best things I have read during this mess of a presidency. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/18/opinion/sunday/president-trump-resignation.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region®ion=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region&_r=0
Just saw this. You must have posted while I was typing. Slowly. Good article.
I hadn’t seen this yet, either, thanks for sharing. Great quote of many: “He abdicated his responsibilities so thoroughly and recklessly that it amounted to a letter of resignation. Then he whored for his Virginia winery on the way out the door.”
Robert Mercer owns Cambridge Analytica, right? This outfit was implicated in Brexit.
These types of meetings make me more convinced of what I said above.
Yep. Russians influenced Americans and Americans influenced Brits. We really need to figure out how to educate our populations to resist this new wave of targeted propaganda.
What would Orwell say?
It’s extremely worrying.
My comfort in all of this, Trump isn’t loyal and only thinks in the moment. Bannon is out of sight and our small brained President may treat him as he has treated countless others, disregard him once he is out of his air apace. These dogs believe in a man who doesn’t exist and he will do to them what he had done to countless others, treat them like crude for their loyalty.
The important question regarding anything coming out of this administration is: What do the corporate sponsors (primarily the Mercers) want?
They fund Breitbart, they fund many of Trumps’s sycophants, and they’re the ones pushing to eradicate public education, environmental protections, and taxes on the rich. If they wanted Bannon to spend some time in the epicenter of classified information before returning to spread disinformation, then this isn’t necessarily good news.
Yep.
This implies he ever stopped working for Breitbart.
I agree with you; he never did.
I’m just here to say fake news, overly bias news, and failing to report news is a real thing.
Here in my hometown, Greenville, NC, on Friday there was a protest/clash between NAACP, KKK, Nazis, and a few other groups I’m not sure of (due to failure to report I only was able to rely on people who were there or told others about it). Anyway, the NAACP organized a prayer vigil at our county courthouse to remember the victim of the previous weekend. The prayer was scheduled for 5-7 pm and the streets in that area would be closed. Well at the same time we have this confederate statue at the courthouse that a lot of people are protesting or wanting to protect. The KKK and Nazis knew about the pray and decided to show up hours before to sabotage the prayer and to protest the removal of the statue (which can’t be removed). Apparently a riot or them clashing went on and the streets got closed earlier. To my knowledge no one was hurt, thank God, but our local news outlet WITN and our state news WRAL, neither reported the incident at all. Instead, WITN mentioned the vigil, mentioned that the governor (which by the way our former governor pitched a fit for losing so the new one had to go through a lot to get his job) wants the statue removed and apparently he has no authority to call for that!? No mention of the protest, no mention of kkk/Nazis showing up to sabotage a prayer, just nothing.
People are quick to call CNN fake news or any outlet that’s non conservative fake news, but the truth is all news is bias and even the local news now can’t even be trusted. I understand if you report the news you’re going to pick a side. It’s human nature to do that, but at least report it! Where this protest took place is literally less than a mile from ECU. It was also the day freshmen were moving in so they could have been at risk with this going on and the news failed to even bother to report it so the parents of those kids had no idea what was going on. I found out from a coworker. His grandma was going to be one of the pastors to head the prayer for the night.
The KKK are the only “organized group” that wears a mask (unless you count anonymous, but they aren’t in the category of hate group or whatever you want to call them). They are nothing but a bunch of cowards who have to hide behind a mask because sharing their identity will get them fired. I really hate what our country is becoming, but the media is just as to blame as the people doing it.
CB doesn’t necessarily print all political related news and I’m fine with that. It’s about celebrity gossip more so than politics so I get it. The big guys though, they need to step it up. They are leaving us in the dark.
“Whiskey-soaked pig-f*cker” is what one of my friends described Bannon as during the election, and it’s the only thing that comes to mind every single time I see him.
Let’s hear another big cheer for the heart attack that is bound to bring that f*cker down! Please, get him! Sooner than later!!
Did anyone else read the article-I think it was on Politico-about the house he had in Florida had a bathtub that had acid dissolved in it and had traces of meth? It might explain the sores on his face. This man is the epitome of evil.
I read about that also and it reminded me of one of the early episodes in the first season of Breaking Bad.
Don’t forget the prostitutes. I am not joking either.
I don’t think this is as huge as the media is making it out to be. They act as if Bannon has won every battle he has waged on the outside or inside. He hates Paul Ryan and primaried him and Ryan still won by a landslide. He tried to push Complicity Barbie and Crooked J out but it didn’t work. Tangerine will never side against those two. If he does then he will truly be alone, and he can’t stand his loneliness as it is. When he gets extra crazy he wants Crooked J around since he thinks he is the only one who is loyal. Once the war focuses on the Javanka it will get ugly.
Murdoch despises Bannon and you can already see WSJ and Fox softening their White House support. This is the work of the sons who hate the reputation Fox has and don’t like that it is unbalanced to the degree it has been. They are behind the firings there, and they will continue to get rid of the loudest mouths on the network. As evil as Citizen Kane Rupert is the one thing about him is family loyalty and dislike of right wing fringe such as Bannon. Nor does he like to be challenged and isn’t above destroying Breitbart.
Then you have the Koch brothers vs. The Mercers.
Mainstream Rs vs Freedom Caucus
Globalists vs Nationalists
Nazis vs Just about everyone else.
They are busy fighting each other that it is the perfect opportunity for everyone else to organize and decide how to win in 2018.
And yesterday (or maybe Sat?), Breitbart posted a photo of what they claimed was a migrant gang member on the back of a police jet-ski, making it look like they were flooding Europe for a free ride just like all those (fictional) welfare queens. Too bad it was actually a well-known German soccer player named Lukas Podolski on a holiday, and he now plans to sue the publication. But CNN is the real fake news, guys!