Steve Bannon’s quoted statements to Michael Wolff that were included in the book Fire and Fury set Washington ablaze and have the chattering classes chattering.
The president has gone ballistic on “Sloppy Steve,” with a slew of angry tweets that make it clear the break between the two former allies is sharp and permanent.
But for some reason, Bannon has found a need to apologize to Trump and to his son, whom he basically referred to as a “traitor” in the Wolff book. Surprisingly, he gave the left-wing website Axios the exclusive on the apology.
Axois:
Battered by the backlash from Michael Wolff’s book, Steve Bannon is trying to make amends with the Trump family, providing a statement to Axios that expresses “regret” to President Trump and praises his son, Donald Trump Jr.
- “Donald Trump, Jr. is both a patriot and a good man. He has been relentless in his advocacy for his father and the agenda that has helped turn our country around.”
- “My support is also unwavering for the president and his agenda — as I have shown daily in my national radio broadcasts, on the pages of Breitbart News and in speeches and appearances from Tokyo and Hong Kong to Arizona and Alabama.”
- “President Trump was the only candidate that could have taken on and defeated the Clinton apparatus. I am the only person to date to conduct a global effort to preach the message of Trump and Trumpism; and remain ready to stand in the breech for this president’s efforts to make America great again.”
- “My comments about the meeting with Russian nationals came from my life experiences as a Naval officer stationed aboard a destroyer whose main mission was to hunt Soviet submarines to my time at the Pentagon during the Reagan years when our focus was the defeat of ‘the evil empire’ and to making films about Reagan’s war against the Soviets and Hillary Clinton’s involvement in selling uranium to them.”
- “My comments were aimed at Paul Manafort, a seasoned campaign professional with experience and knowledge of how the Russians operate. He should have known they are duplicitous, cunning and not our friends. To reiterate, those comments were not aimed at Don Jr.”
- “Everything I have to say about the ridiculous nature of the Russian ‘collusion’ investigation I said on my 60 Minutes interview. There was no collusion and the investigation is a witch hunt.”
- “I regret that my delay in responding to the inaccurate reporting regarding Don Jr has diverted attention from the president’s historical accomplishments in the first year of his presidency.”
First of all, why Axios? The site is a hyper-partisan, hysterical far-left rag full of wild speculation about Trump and his crimes. It calls into question the sincerity of Bannon’s apology.
Second, he is not denying the statements he made to Wolff. He doesn’t say he was misquoted. He doesn’t say his words were taken out of context. He said what he said and if he expects Trump or Donald Trump Jr. to forgive him, he will be sorely mistaken.
Bannon surely expected some pushback from Trump, but the firestorm that has erupted over his comments may have gone far beyond his expectations. Perhaps he thought the book would be no big deal and he could patch things up with Trump once the initial shock blew over.
But what the “apology” really shows is Bannon’s disconnect from reality and his spectacularly poor judgment. If you think Bannon is the guy to lead the revolution against the establishment and mainstream Republicanism, you should probably rethink that assessment.
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