Steve Bannon’s First Show Out of Jail Should Be a Huge Warning
Steve Bannon, the engineer behind Donald Trump’s MAGA movement, was fresh out of prison Tuesday and already drumming up hatred and fear ahead of the presidential election next week.
In his first public appearance on his War Room podcast after completing a four-month stint in federal prison, Bannon once again claimed he was a political prisoner and warned that it could happen to others, too.
“Let me say something, if you’re not prepared to be sent to a federal prison as a political prisoner, then you’re not worthy to be in this movement, and to step forward and try to save your country,” he said. “You have to understand: they want to put you in prison and they will put you in prison. If you can’t accept that, then you don’t know what they represent.”
“They talk about President Trump, ‘He’s gonna do this, he’s gonna do this,’ look at what they’ve done,” Bannon continued.
What Bannon failed to elucidate in his cryptic warnings of political imprisonment is that in his unwavering support of Trump, he broke the law. Bannon had defied a federal subpoena issued as part of the congressional investigation into the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. He had refused to sit for a deposition with the House Committee investigating the riot, and refused to hand over documents related to his involvement in Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Joined by Raheem Kassam, a former editor at Bannon’s propaganda machine Breitbart, the Trump ally also bragged about a “wide swath of African American men and Hispanic men” who would be joining the MAGA movement and help deliver victory for the former president.
Bannon also hit back at the “rhetoric” calling members of the MAGA movement “fascist” and defended Trump’s “fantastic, that amazing rally at Madison Square Garden,” which has been completely overshadowed by racist remarks from its speakers, including comedian Tony Hinchcliffe.
Bannon claimed that the rally’s speakers represented a “broad cross-section of American entrepreneurs,” specifically listing Tulsi Gabbard, Elon Musk, and Vivek Ramaswamy.
After being released, the 70-year-old said he felt “amazing, and more importantly empowered” by his prison sentence.