Preprison Interviews Give Bannon a Chance to Pitch Fascism, Cover-Up His Fraud
Because Steve Bannon is powerful — or perhaps because he has an effective publicist — multiple outlets decided to magnify Bannon’s views as he set off for prison for refusing to tell Congress about his role in planning an insurrection.
NBC’s interview largely gave Bannon the opportunity to undermine the integrity of any Democratic win in 2024. When Vaughn Hillyard asked Bannon to defend his claim that the Mar-a-Lago search had been an attempt to assassinate Trump, Hillyard never bothered to ask Bannon how that could happen, given that Trump was in New Jersey.
David Brooks’ interview gave Bannon opportunity to boast of his ties to European fascists (though like NBC, Brooks called Bannon’s work “populism,” not fascism).
STEVE BANNON: Well, I think it’s very simple: that the ruling elites of the West lost confidence in themselves. The elites have lost their faith in their countries. They’ve lost faith in the Westphalian system, the nation-state. They are more and more detached from the lived experience of their people.
On our show “War Room,” I probably spend at least 20 percent of our time talking about international elements in our movement. So we’ve made Nigel a rock star, Giorgia Meloni a rock star. Marine Le Pen is a rock star. Geert is a rock star. We talk about these people all the time.
Like NBC’s, Jon Karl’s interview consisted, substantially, of trying to get Bannon to admit he was calling for violence, with Bannon responding that it was all metaphor, figurative, Roman rhetoric.
All these journalists seem to think they’re going to get Bannon to admit he’s sowing violence, as if being just clever enough will get him to give up the game.
Bannon did say something interesting. When asked to describe Trump’s plans for a second term, Bannon described his plan to “end forever wars” to include the South China Sea:
- Seal the border and mass deportations
- Renew tax cuts for super wealthy
- End US power projection in Ukraine, Israel, and the South China Sea, which he called ending “forever wars”
The last bullet point is a plan to cede power to authoritarian countries — Russia, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, and China — at least some of which are suspected of funding Bannon if not his long-time associate, Guo Wengui.
But none of these interviewers asked Bannon about Guo, about Guo’s ties to UAE and his suspected ties, still, to the Chinese state. They sure as hell didn’t ask him about DOJ’s treatment of Bannon as a co-conspirator in Guo’s alleged fraud against his rabid followers.
More remarkable still, none of these interviewers asked Bannon about his upcoming fraud trial, the fraud for which all his charged co-conspirators are already doing prison time.
Steve Bannon stands accused of bilking rabid Trump supporters to support his lavish lifestyle. DOJ says his whole shtick is a fraud — fraud that serves his pocketbook, a fraud that serves the elite, a fraud that serves fascism, a fraud that might even serve the very countries he claims to oppose.
And multiple journalists decided to interview Bannon is if an accused fraudster would ever tell them the truth.
Bannon is a fraud looking for a fight.
“The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.”
Steve Bannon, CNN, Nov 16, 2021
Fascists don’t end forever wars, they rename them. He would gladly substitute civil war for foreign ones. But he’ll have those, too, because Fascists always need to be at war with an Other, or else they self-destruct.
Bannon is an anarchist and a courtier to billionaires. His promises to the base, about peace, prosperity, and an exclusive focus on a xenophobic homeland, are as likely to be kept as all those made to indigenous people in America.
Bannon is not an anarchist. Anarchy is just his money raising shtick. He may fancy himself as a chaos agent. But surely he is smart enough to know who chaos benefits and it isn’t his listeners.
He is a courtier to billionaires, or, at least their useful tool.
I’ll disagree with regard to the degree.
Bannon is a Ledeenian “universal fascist” — remember the neocon folks ahead of and during the Iraq War who embraced creative destruction, claiming all kinds of good things would emerge from the resulting chaos? That. This concept relies on anarchy but focused in its aims which are ultimately fascist corruption.
But claiming to be a universal fascist isn’t socially acceptable, so he claims he’s a Leninist. Bullshit. He wants the destruction of revolution but he’s not moving toward communism as an end. He’s seeking to maximize harvest which I don’t want to call profit. Does a vampire call the blood they suck profit, after all?
It’s important to keep in mind that Bannon has been a hedge fund manager, like his sponsors the Mercers and his brother-in-ideology across the pond, Nigel Farage. They know they can make rapid profits by playing shorts, which can be fabricated by means of creating volatility through various forms of destruction in the market.
This guy is pointing to a short he helped make by implementing Brexit:
We should be looking for the shorts being set up right now. They’ll tell us where they are planning to inflict destruction.
Farage is implicated in an op short selling Sterling by falsely claiming, on the night of the Brexit count, to be privy to polls showing Remain had won. it was Crispin Odey Asset Management which made the killing.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-06-25/brexit-big-short-how-pollsters-helped-hedge-funds-beat-the-crash
Farage, though ‘very close’ to hedge fund managers, was I believe never one himself. Rather his background was as a commodity trader on the London Metal Exchange from when he left school in 1982 until 2003.
Agreed! You are correct! No need for me to add any other words to your post.
Here is an FT profile of Farage
https://www.ft.com/content/02cad03a-844f-11e4-bae9-00144feabdc0
Published 6 Feb 2015 covering his career in the City of London from 1982 -2014
“2003 he joined forces with his brother and another metals broker, Daniel Gillespie, to found Farage Limited, a commodities broker. That company ended up insolvent. In September 2014 it was in the process of paying back £33,000 in owed taxes”
Not being particularly good at trading may have taught Farage to win he’d need to bork the rules — can’t win under existing governance model, so bork it.
I’d like to know how good Bannon was at fund management. Couldn’t have been too good if he resorted to defrauding donors to raise cash.
In common with Lenin, there is utilizing useful idiots. That’s about it.
(He’s had MTG and the Florida guy under ethics scrutiny on War Room.)
Bannon is a self-proclaimed anarchist. There’s a parallel between his anarchism and Brexit that is extremely profitable. For those with extreme wealth – individuals, private equity – chaos brings opportunity, whether it’s to buy low, sell high, or to break into heretofore restricted assets, such as the Social Security trust fund, or new schemes to aggregate and financialize normally disparate assets.
In the distant past (2016), I recall Bannon being a fan of Alvin Toffler, whose philosophy was a variation of “the only constant is change”. Bannon thought that since chaos was inevitable, he might as well be a flamethrower. Bannon has made quite a living peddling chaos and railing against elites (except for his friends). Bannon may be a fascist or an anarchist. But I think he believes in only two things: power and money. Maybe he has convinced himself that he is on a holy crusade. Color me skeptical.
A holy crusader who defrauds donors. LOL Not particularly holy, that.
I think this paragraph from Albert Einstein’s 1949 essay, Why Socialism?, covers it:
“Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of smaller ones. The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population. Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights.”
75 years later it’s still happening, and judging from what you’ve written here it’s only getting worse.
Thank you for posting this gem.
Benjamin Franklin on Economics
1. That an enormous Proportion of Property vested in a few Individuals is dangerous to the Rights, and destructive of the Common Happiness, of Mankind; and therefore every free state hath a Right by its Laws to discourage the Possession of such Property.
2. Private property therefore is a creature of society, and is subject to the calls of that society, whenever its necessities shall require it, even to its last farthing.
3. That as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours, and this we should do freely and generously.
4. If honesty was often the companion of wealth, and if poverty was exposed to peculiar temptation, it was not less true that the possession of property increased the desire of more property. Some of the greatest rogues I ever was acquainted with were the richest rogues.
from Benjamin Franklin by Edmund S. Morgan
Hew Haven: Yale University Press, 2002
PS: My understanding is that Bannon’s first big score was as part of the group that sold the Seinfeld TV show. He was also the person who threw all the scientists out of Biosphere II back in the day.
I wonder if he goes back to Harvard Business School for the reunions.
Thanks for the quote, Pikettys book seems to have been written a while ago.
Another example of why the media thoroughly disgusts me lately.
I agree. The Media has given Bannon and Trump and their filthy propaganda airtime, print time, and cable time. This has amplified their nasty rhetoric and Fascist resurrection of Xenophobia and Racism to an American public which flunked high school Civics classes, viewers who are busy stuffing their faces with unhealthy food and liquids. But, as I go about my peregrinations in my community, I observe more kindness and courtesy than the Media recognizes. Media wants us at each other’s throats. That type of coverage of people, such as Trump and Bannon, along with all Trump’s surrogates, represents drama and conflict, and high ratings and click bait.
I came within a whisker of getting on Guo Wengui’s jury (at the time, the trial was projected to run thru mid-July) but I honestly knew next to nothing about the guy, other than that Bannon supposedly lived on his yacht free for a couple of years. I haven’t been following the trial at all since then, but I imagine plenty of substance about the ties between Bannon and Guo (and Chinese autocrats) will come out. (There was at least one reporter present, as well as vigorous security peering under desks and tables before the day could start, the day the final jury was seated and the rest of us were let go.) I also assume that whatever chaos Bannon and his ilk plunge the world into, he figures he’ll always come out at, or near, the top. Somehow four months in lockup doesn’t seem like nearly enough for this piece of sewage.
Did they ask if you knew of Bannon?
He has been treated as a co-conspirator throughout the trial.
MoJo’s Dan Friedman should have the best coverage of the trial.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/06/miles-guo-wengui-witness-mulan/
Thanks for including that article, Marcy. Li was very brave. The article also mentions one way in which disinformation about Hunter Biden was disseminated.
This sure has been a depressing week. At least Bannon is locked up for awhile. But I think it’s a terrible idea to let him work in the library there. With his new kingly powers, maybe Joe Biden could find a more suitable work unit for Bannon.
What’s orange, yellow, and Greene?
Conjugal visits in Bannon’s cell.
(yellow journalist = MTG’s boyfriend Brian Glenn)
I’m sorry. I worked in corrections for seven years, ran Alaska’s biggest halfway house for over two of them.
I find any and all jokes about incarcerated sex to be beyond the pale and utterly tasteless.
This post made me look for the oldest web article on Bannon I had saved. It was from Trump’s second week in office when he just had put Bannon on the National Security Council:
“Steve Bannon Is Making Sure There’s No White House Paper Trail, Says Intel Source” by Kate Brannen, January 30, 2017, https://www.justsecurity.org/37010/steve-bannon-making-theres-white-house-paper-trail/.
What seemed chaotic back then now looks on purpose:
An abridged summary of the piece on “Just Security” was put out on the now-defunct “The Outline” that ends with
Archived link to The Outline: https://web.archive.org/web/20220628201714/https://theoutline.com/post/976/steve-bannon-is-taking-over-the-white-house
Link to the referenced NYT op-ed: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/opinion/president-bannon.html
A critical reminder of the first weeks of the Trump administration! I remember the events and outcry personally – but it is compelling (and nausea-inducing) to note how and by whom it has been memory-holed.
When I think back to the earliest coverage of Bannon’s supposed brilliant hedge fund moves, it involved his convincing Goldman Sachs into investing in Chinese gamers merchandising “gold” in video games. 2006. Shades of bit-coin IMHO. Never got covered much until after the Great Recession eased, but some commentators suggested it was where the Steve began understanding the power of a hidden troll army.
[Moderator’s note: just an FYI – I suspect this comment was treated by Askimet as spam because it contained a combination of trigger words like “bit-coin” and “gold.” /~Rayne]
“I have no regrets, I’m actually proud of what I did. And I felt terrible if I didn’t do it. I don’t mind going to prison today.” Steve Bannon, 1 July 2024 entering the Danbury, Connecticut Federal Prison
Was that a real priest? He needs to be named and shamed.
I’m not exactly sure what Bannon comes out of 4 months in Danbury Correctional. It is an actual prison, and for all his veneer of toughness, he has to be scared. I have witnessed people come out of that institution and others like it quite changed. Yes in many different ways, some absolutely terrible outcomes, some illuminated, some real angry. But a man of his age, with the comforts and privileges he is accustomed to, is not ever ready for what he is experiencing now.
Considering Bannon looks like he eats out of left over cat food cans washed down by Ripple, Danbury may be a step up. Martha Stewart made it through 5 months at Alderson just fine, and I would venture her day to day life is substantially more aesthetically pleasant than Bannon’s.
So, if he is so happy to be in prison and so proud of what he did to get there, why did he resist so much having to go there. Was he like the Rabbit in Uncle Remus’ tale who kept hollaring, “Don’t throw me in the Briar Patch!” when in fact, the Briar Patch is where he was most at home?
Replying to Rayne
July 2, 2024 at 10:13 am
“Steve was very good at whipping people up into a passion,”
Connie Brook
The New Yorker
“How Hollywood Remembers Steve Bannon
He says that, before he became a senior adviser to the President, he was a successful player in the film industry. But what did he actually do?”
April 24, 2017
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/05/01/how-hollywood-remembers-steve-bannon
https://www.thewrap.com/steve-bannon-movies-shows-wrote-directed-produced/
A quote from the linked interview, Bannon speaking, ““Ladies and gentleman, it’s very simple: victory or death!” Bannon said during his speech as the audience cheered.”
The bastard’s ready to fall on his sword! Great, if he does it. Talk’s cheap.
Beyond that, four months is enough time to write a memoir, “My Struggle.”
A little good news for a change:
Illustrates that Trump’s supporters are subject to legitimate collateral attack for their insurrection and other lawbreaking.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/02/rudy-giuliani-disbarred-new-york-2020-election
Here’s the link to Fox News coverage:
Zing!
So I just finished reading. One thing stood out at the end:
“It is further Ordered that if respondent, Rudolph W. Giuliani, admitted as Rudolph William Giuliani, has been issued a secure pass by the Office of Court Administration, it shall be returned forthwith.”
Does that mean no more passes to secure areas for Rudy? Or is this referring to something else?
I imagine it makes it easier to clear the magnetometer when you enter a courthouse.
That and also there are areas not open to the general public, essentially only those who have business being there, like jurors both petit and grand, court staff, anyone who is an officer of the court, etc.
I think I see what they are ordering. Any passes he may be in possession of must be returned
“0 results found.”
–Fox News website search results for “Rudy Giuliani” between July 1 and July 3, 2024.
“0 results found.”
–Fox News website search results for “Giuliani” between July 1 and July 4, 2024.
“103,000 results found.”
–Fox News website search results for “Hunter Biden” between July 1 and July 4, 2024.
I’m thinking about Marcy’s words at the top, especially: “…multiple outlets decided to magnify (Bannon’s) views…” (my parenthesis)
I’m not unfamiliar with Media issues. It’s been a continuous concern, and horrifying watching the degradation. Added to that, the Democrats continue to be unbelievably inept with their understanding, approach and delivery of even the most basic messaging. I have to say, I’m even confused as to what the Democratic Party sees as its primary goals (and why).
observiter wrote:
“ I’m even confused as to what the Democratic Party sees as its primary goals (and why).”
I’d say everything is a subset of ‘not completely handing over the reins to Fascim.’ Why? Because Fascism is publicly on offer by the opposition. They’ve learned some lessons since the last time and won’t attempt to make it palatable.
But if you want the official platform of “the Democratic Party”
you’ll get that at the convention. In the interim, here’s the last one:
https://democrats.org/where-we-stand/party-platform/
@observiter: important and on point. Unless you generate clicks, like Bannon and Trump, it is hard to generate any kind of message.
Imagine debating Trump: a flood of lies pouring from a mouth that smirks like the Joker. Now imagine all of that reverberating through the paparazzo, passing as news and commentary.
Map this to what Einstein feared. Under pressure from social media, the capitalist-owned media has become a paparazzi press. Bannon, Trump, Farage, Putin, et ilk, like the Joker, all see the potential for profit in this chaos.
Now, back to the Dems. The Democrats are a multi-generational party. The old guard tolerated the court-packing of Reagan, supported the neo-liberal policies of the Clinton presidency, the neo-con project of the first Bush administration, and the take-no-prisoners post-financial crisis policy of the Obama administration. The blue-wall rust-belt electorate has a visceral knowledge of what all this meant for their livelihood.
My opinion is that the old guard is hanging on well into their 80’s because they think they should fix it. Biden, for example, wants to make up to rust-belt by spending on infrastructure. Yet, his and his contributors’ neo-liberalism prevents him from owning the industrial-policy projects that might have saved the rust-belt 30 years ago. He could have said exactly that one message in the debate and he would now be beating Trump by double digits.
Better, IMO, would be for them all to apologize and let the socialists (Bernie, AOC) have a go.
/rant
Start with FDR and the New Deal, then go to Harry Truman’s desegregation of the military, then go with JFK and LBJ on civil rights. Then, think about how the civil rights acts broke up the Democratic coalition and ceded the racists to the Republicans. Think about abortion rights and bodily autonomy for women. Think about who supports the environment. Think about who supports the minimum wage. Think who got universal healthcare passed with Obamacare. Think about what party delivers better economic growth. Think who got most of the country vaccinated. Think about the infrastructure bill passed.
I could go on and on. We need our citizens to become better educated.
You seem to think that the Dems are an organized party, the GOP. They aren’t. They haven’t been, in my lifetime. They’re a coalition party.
My point being the Democrat’s inept messaging capabilities.
And so we are left with the Democratic Party ineptness, and the Media lapping up showy far-right soundbite crap from disgusting, disturbing Bannon, who knows how to capture attention. And we read stories about the far-right in France taking further hold. Wasn’t Bannon in France, several years ago prior to the Brexit votes, conferring with the French far-right (and others)?
What comes to mind is this.
How is it possible that a Black man became President of the U.S. Even before a woman!! (snark snark) If Obama hadn’t been gifted with extraordinary orator and messaging skills, it NEVER would have happened. The Republicans and their associates (those currently in control of the Republican Party) tried hard to destroy Obama — if you remember — but they didn’t succeed. How come?
Biden was born with a speech impediment, which he fought and mainly overcame. But as an orator/debater, he’s not skilled as Obama or FDR. He has a compelling and admirable story of overcoming terrible circumstances (speech and family). Most of the public don’t know about this.
The public don’t know about the Biden family member who had debilitating drug problems, but with difficulty overcame them. This is a familiar story to many Americans, including those who call themselves “MAGA”. But the Democratic Party allowed the Republicans to do what they tried with Obama and others.
Where has the Democratic Party been in supporting Biden. Where are they in delivering a CLEAR, SIMPLE message to the public about what they represent. Obama’s “Hope” is missing. The Democrats publicize so many different involvements and goals that most all are lost to the general public because of the Democrat’s large umbrella, and for other reasons.
We can talk about the history and makeup of the current Democratic Party, and we can point out the shape of the Media. But if an organization wants to win, it needs to understand how to do so, under current circumstances.
Biden should have kept his mouth shut and ignored who was next to him. We already know the man sucks from those who interact with him. Biden should have ignored him, and spoken loud and clear and slowly the points he wanted to say, how he wanted to say them. Instead, Biden listened and got pulled into nowhere-land.
Who the hell is supporting Biden, and us.
Obama benefited from the financial crash as McCain was saying that the economy was strong and getting stronger. Then, McCain picked Sarah Palin. Then McCain suspended his campaign to focus on the financial crisis. Then McCain restarted his campaign. Then the Republicans voted down a bailout. The stock market crashed. Then they voted for the bailout. I was a volunteer canvasser for Obama in Pa. The more Palin campaigned in Pa the better it got for Obama.
If you look at the country’s history since the Great Depression, the country turns to Democrats when help is needed. When rescued, the country turns to Republicans who give large tax cuts to wealthy and then satiates the common people with peanuts. Then they complain about budget deficits and cut programs. While passing out sops they focus on social issues like book banning, abortion, affirmative action, stringent policing of minorities, discrimination of gays, guns, the death penalty and acting like they want to deport migrants.
EXACTLY
“none of these interviewers asked Bannon about his upcoming fraud trial” – it’s almost like journalists have to be led by a chain by… actual traditional competent journalists… from somewhere?
Where Steve Bannon leaves us Bannonism, and its focus on retribution against Americans who disagree with the MAGA movement, will persist as he serves a four month sentence https://www.mediamatters.org/steve-bannon/where-steve-bannon-leaves-us
Madeline Peltz 07/01/24 1:07 PM
Peltz writes about this Charlie KIRK Xeet:
https://x.com/charliekirk11/status/1806830081794601380
7:20 PM · Jun 28, 2024
Transcript of VIDEO:
In her July 4, 2024 Letters from an American, Heather Cox Richardson connects SCOTUS Trumpunity and other decisions,
Steve [I will “be more powerful in prison than I am now”] BANNON,
Project 2025 and it’s “tight coordination with [new EU President!] ORBAN:
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/july-4-2024
Correction: It’s “tight cooperation” NOT “tight
coordination“