Here’s the interview everyone in politics will be talking about today. In a long interview with Charlie Rose, former White House Adviser Steve Bannon came out swinging against Congressional Republicans for not supporting Donald Trump’s agenda. “They’re gonna be held accountable.” And Bannon had even harsher words for the Bush administration for getting the U.S. into an Iraqi War and brought China into the WTO. “I hold these people in contempt — total contempt…. they’re idiots,” said Bannon.
Bannon also clarified that his views are economic nationalism, and that these views are not exclusionary against any person or race.
Bannon also denounced white nationalists and Klansmen who tried to hijack Trump’s message, calling them “morally wrong.”
CHARLIE ROSE: I tell you where many people suggest it should have gone, it should have gone in terms of denouncing specifically from the very beginning Neo-Nazis and white supremacists and people of that political view. And it should have gone there because those were people that Americans in World War II went to fight against and should have instantly denounced them. And you didn’t at first instinct. In fact, you seemed to be doubling down in terms of a moral equivalency.
STEVE BANNON: What he was trying to say is that people that support the monument staying there peacefully and people that oppose that, that’s the normal course of First Amendment. When he’s talking about the Neo-Nazis and Neo-Confederates and the Klan, who, by the way, are absolutely awful– there’s no room in American politics for that. There’s no room in American society for that. My problem– my problem, and I told General Kelly this, when you side with a man, you side with him. I was proud to come out and try to defend President Trump in the media that day.
CHARLIE ROSE: And no exceptions in terms of siding with someone?
STEVE BANNON: You can tell him, “Hey, maybe you can do it a better way.” But if you’re gonna break, then resign. If you’re going to break with him, resign. The stuff that was leaked out that week by certain members of the White House I thought was unacceptable. If you find it unacceptable, you should resign
Photo credit: 60 Minutes