In interviews conducted for a forthcoming book on the Trump campaign and administration, walking gin blossom Steve Bannon tramples some erstwhile White House rivals in what appears to be a mad rush to abandon a sinking ship. Today, The Guardian published excerpts of Michael Wolff’s “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” which drops next week:
Bannon remarked mockingly: “The three senior guys in the campaign thought it was a good idea to meet with a foreign government inside Trump Tower in the conference room on the 25th floor – with no lawyers. They didn’t have any lawyers.
“Even if you thought that this was not treasonous, or unpatriotic, or bad shit, and I happen to think it’s all of that, you should have called the FBI immediately.”
Bannon went on, Wolff writes, to say that if any such meeting had to take place, it should have been set up “in a Holiday Inn in Manchester, New Hampshire, with your lawyers who meet with these people”. Any information, he said, could then be “dump[ed] … down to Breitbart or something like that, or maybe some other more legitimate publication”.
Bannon added: “You never see it, you never know it, because you don’t need to … But that’s the brain trust that they had.”
Bannon also thinks the administration’s outward facade of confidence in the outcome of the Mueller probe is…misplaced:
“You realise where this is going,” he is quoted as saying. “This is all about money laundering. Mueller chose [senior prosecutor Andrew] Weissmann first and he is a money-laundering guy. Their path to fucking Trump goes right through Paul Manafort, Don Jr and Jared Kushner … It’s as plain as a hair on your face.”
Last month it was reported that federal prosecutors had subpoenaed records from Deutsche Bank, the German financial institution that has lent hundreds of millions of dollars to the Kushner property empire. Bannon continues: “It goes through Deutsche Bank and all the Kushner shit. The Kushner shit is greasy. They’re going to go right through that. They’re going to roll those two guys up and say play me or trade me.”
Scorning apparent White House insouciance, Bannon reaches for a hurricane metaphor: “They’re sitting on a beach trying to stop a Category Five.”
Damn. Think this might explain why Trump is trying to start a nuclear war on Twitter?
dedc79
It’s been clear for months now that Bannon is pushing the line that Trump means well, but is being undermind at every turn by his idiot children and corrupt (((globalists))).
Mike R
@dedc79: Maybe so, but who taught Don jr how to be corrupt. That would be Sr. what a slimy bunch we have infesting the white house.
Doug R
So Bannon WAS the brains of the operation. On the American side, anyway.
Betty Cracker
@dedc79: He may even believe that — who knows? But he doesn’t sound very confident that Trump’s business records can withstand Mueller’s scrutiny. For once, I hope the shitbag is right.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@dedc79:
Always those cosmopolitan globalists. (wink)
Basilisc
When he says “I happen to think it’s all of that”, does he mean he thinks it was “treasonous, or unpatriotic, or bad shit”, or that it wasn’t? Ambiguous in the context. An aggressive (or even halfway decent) reporter would have called him back to clarify what he meant.
Gin & Tonic
Looking at Bannon, you wouldn’t think he could run, but that dude is *sprinting* away from this shitstorm.
Patricia Kayden
Talk about guilty as hell. Wow. Bannon must be so drunk that he cannot help but to tell the truth.
Quinerly
You couldn’t make this shit up! Now, Bannon is the hero and patriot??
Kidding aside, he hasn’t been interviewed by Mueller’s team,yet, has he? Think I would have remembered that since this shit show has consumed my life.
bjacques
As always, rooting for injuries.
Yarrow
He’s an asshole and thinks he’s smarter than he is, but he’s right about this.
Tick tock, motherfuckers.
The Moar You Know
I have some serious issues in lending credence to any of these allegations, because Bannon is a world-class fucking liar himself. With an agenda. And it’s not an anti-Trump agenda.
DanF
He’s a shit-heel of the highest order, but Bannon is not an idiot. He dislikes Republicans almost as much as he dislikes Democrats and has no side other than “people who think like me and will give me power.” I have no doubt he desperately wanted to keep Trump insulated from his team of treasonous F-Troopers (TV reference for the olds), but they were family so no dice. He only kinda sorta abandoned ship – more like transferred to one running parallel but at a safer distance.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
I was kind of hoping there would be a serious enough indictment of somebody (preferably the orange guy at the top) to prevent his showing up for a State of the Union (scheduled for Jan 30). But I guess he’s going to actually get to deliver one, dammit.
Barring that, I’d like to see a 100% Democratic boycott of the SOTU. But I don’t suppose that will happen either.
Since I try as much as possible to avoid hearing his voice or seeing his face or mentioning his name, I’m not going to watch it even if Comedy Central covers it. Good night for Netflix I guess.
Leto
Doesn’t matter, he’s going to burn with all them. Doesn’t matter how much he tries to distance himself, throw them under the bus, or say, “I totes would’ve called the FBI!”, he’s going to fucking burn. BY FIRE, BE PURGED!
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
If an honest, hard working, white Christian conservative American fails and there’s neither some person of color nor a jewish person around to blame, has he actually failed?
OzarkHillbilly
And the first shots of the circular firing squad are heard.
Joe Falco
The wait for the hammer to drop is going to kill me, I swear. All the breathless reports day after day that Trump and his merry band of scum suckers are in a heap of trouble fill me with hope and bitterness in equal portions. I want justice to be served colder than the winter we’re having right now, but I know it’s a marathon, not a sprint.
With that said, it’s good that the rats and snakes are turning against each other. Let them choke on their hate and avarice!
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Quinerly: Maybe he tried to paint himself that way, but what I read in that passage is “this stuff is obviously treason, and when I do treason I make sure I have cutouts and do it through the lawyers so I can’t be connected with it.”
Obvious Russian Troll
@The Moar You Know: Of course I’d take it with a grain of salt, but Bannon’s agenda here may be to salvage his own reputation and status. “Trump would have won bigly if he had listened to me and not his idiot children and son-in-law.”
tobie
@Quinerly:
This has become a not incidental worry for me. The train wreck is happening and you can’t help but watch and be vigilant and do what you can to make sure some sensible heads get elected…but still I hate the sense that I’ve lost my own life in the past year or two.
eric
Bannon is 100% right as to how you do it, because that is exactly how the GOP plays dirty politics. There was no way that W knew about the McCain dirt in South Carolina, and that way he could deny involvement.
The Trumpers are a team that shoots only three point shots and got the lead by making a disproportionate percentage; but, as all the sports analytics folks will tell you, there will be a regression to the mean. And the Trumpers mean is low. They are low percentage shooters and that is what is beginning to show. As they regress, they will panic and lose.
KickBoxBanana
Not that I care what an asshole like Bannon has to say, but at least he is not acting like he has much to hide in all of this. Unlike pretty much everyone else.
Mnemosyne
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Yep, I caught that, too. When the whole thing breaks, I fully expect Bannon and his fellow travelers to blame “the Joos.”
@Quinerly:
We only know who’s been interviewed by Mueller if the person who got interviewed announces it. Mueller’s team is wisely playing their cards close to their chests.
father pusbucket
@DanF:
Yes, I was impressed that an ideologue has the self-awareness to understand these things. Makes his Breitbart psy-ops all the more terrifying. He knows exactly what he’s doing.
Perfect.
B
does anyone see the irony that Brannon did not consider breitbart a legitimate publication
germy
Was he sitting on Wonder Woman’s lasso of truth during this conversation?
Davebo
@Basilisc: It didn’t seem at all ambiguous to me.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@Basilisc: Michael Wolff is an inveterate savvy cultist/troll, so.
@B: Yes
Mnemosyne
@KickBoxBanana:
Flynn didn’t act like a guy who had anything to hide, either. It’s a sign of arrogance, not innocence.
WaterGirl
Could someone please explain what this means in this context?
Betty Cracker
@DanF: Sounds about right. From what I’ve read, before Trump came along, Bannon was high on Jeff Sessions (!) as the potential white nationalist savior. It’s the white nationalism he cares about, not the vessel that contains it.
@B: Yeah, that gave me a chuckle.
germy
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@KickBoxBanana: @Mnemosyne: I’ve always said that much as I hope against hope to see her in an orange jumpsuit, I think the utterly loathsome Kellyanne Conway is too smart to have left her fingerprints on anything. I could see the same being true of Bannon
Interesting that this comes out a day after the Dems on the House Intel Ctee announce they’re thinking of putting out a minority report because, among other things, Nunes has been covering for Slabhead Donnie
Arm The Homeless
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
That’s ((((((((((rootless)))))))))) cosmopolitan globalist cucks
Steeplejack
@Basilisc:
I liked this part:
So Bannon himself doesn’t see Breitbart as a legitimate publication?
WaterGirl
@Basilisc: I thought it was clearly the first. I didn’t find that ambiguous at all. For what it’s worth.
Yarrow
@B: I caught that. Pretty funny.
Spanky
@Quinerly:
I’m confident that the interrogations we never hear about are the ones that are most productive. It’s impossible that Bannon hasn’t been talked to by this point.
Yarrow
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
She was recorded saying things she didn’t want recorded while at a D.C. cocktail party. I’m not sure she’s all that smart.
Doug R
@Yarrow:
To carry the hurricane analogy further, the most dangerous part of a hurricane is when you get away from the beach, but not far enough inland and get flooded by the storm surge.
gvg
actually I kind of think Bannon is an idiot too. His arrogance won’t notice. He believes a bunch of idiotic stuff about government, economics and finance, and ignores evidence. In prior articles and interviews, I thought he seemed dumb, but he hangs out with a lot of stupid people that he is smarter than so he thinks he is smarter than he really is. Some of his views seem to just be because he can’t stand going along with conventional wisdom.
I really want the Mercers to get exposed. I think they are pretty likely to be treasonous too. In fact I have my suspicions about a lot of the richest set. A few seem pretty grounded but DeVos and the Kochs are pretty shady. If I was a foreign power like Russia, I would have aimed at various media owners like Murdoch and the owner of the National Enquirer and Clear Channel. In some ways it’s like we went to sleep after the cold war and didn’t monitor stuff we needed too any more.
Leto
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: You also had the head of Fusion GPS calling on Orrin Hatch to release his sworn testimony from his Senate hearing. Apparently the redacted report has been sitting on Hatch’s desk for a few months.
KickBoxBanana
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: KCon just a professional denier/deflector who’s job is to go on TV and spews lies. She is not involved in any of the backroom stuff as far as I know.
patrick II
If Donald Trump wanted a German bank to fight a subpoena, he probably should have shaken Angela Merkel’s hand.
Yarrow
@Doug R: Storm surge is the most dangerous part of a hurricane. Everyone thinks it’s wind, which can be very dangerous, but storm surge destroys everything in its path. Mueller and his team are coming with enough indictments that it’ll feel like storm surge to these traitors.
Frank Wilhoit
The quotes attributed to Bannon do not ring even slightly true, whether strategically, tactically, philosophically, or stylistically. It is simply impossible to imagine him saying these things. It is also difficult to imagine who the audience for the book might be, because anyone who wanted to read what Bannon said would want the real thing (whether they like it or not), not this synthetic language expressing the thoughts of someone, or someones, altogether different.
Just One More Canuck
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: do wraiths even have fingerprints?
randy khan
@Spanky:
I agree – Bannon had to be high on their list. And he obviously has a fine instinct for self-preservation.
I’d also add that it would be totally consistent with the Trump campaign operation for him to have been isolated from stuff like the Russian contacts, because he wasn’t family.
MomSense
@WaterGirl:
Will they stay loyal and be prosecuted or flip.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’ve seen this guy regularly referred to as one of the Beast’s closest friends
Mike in NC
MSNBC is now covering the Bannon/Kushner feud, having spent the previous hour or two rekindling their love affair with Mittens.
Barbara
I doubt if loyalty is Bannon’s his strong suit. IIRC, he wanted Jeff Sessions to run for president. I assume that means he thought Trump was more or less an empty vehicle that he could load up to deliver whatever goods he wanted to sell. On the other hand, it does seem kind of obvious that money laundering is a target of Mueller. And I really do believe that Kushner’s only desire is to extricate his family’s business from the spectre of bankruptcy through foreign investment, and not just any foreigners, but foreigners who will overlook the obvious downside that the investment will not make any money. Selling the U.S. as an ally has to be worth something and Kushner’s goal is to figure out how to monetize it as an asset so that he gets to continue in life as a multimillionaire if not billionaire.
Adam L Silverman
@Betty Cracker: He doesn’t, because they can’t. The first thing anyone does when taking on a job like Bannon did for the President is do a reverse oppo project on one’s own candidate. Or review what was done. My understanding from the reporting is that the Trump campaign did not do one of their own as the President thought it was a waste of money, so reckon that Bannon, provided he’s not a complete fool, had one done. So Bannon may not know the specifics, but he at least knows the broad outlines.
Leto
@Spanky: From the article:
Mueller and company are working their way up. They’ll eventually get to him. I hope he sticks with “will not hire a lawyer”.
Adam L Silverman
@Patricia Kayden: @Quinerly: As funny as it may sound, it is pretty clear that Bannon cares deeply. It’s just what he cares deeply about, destroying the country to save it rooted in a bizarre, off kilter reading of a fringe history book, is nuts. He is convinced he’s telling the harsh truths and making the hard decisions necessary to save the US.
Yarrow
@gvg:
I think you’ll get your wish. There’s a reason Bob Mercer suddenly sold his business to his daughters and it wasn’t because he’s just a loving father.
MomSense
@Yarrow:
Doesn’t he owe an astronomical amount in back taxes?
Adam L Silverman
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: It goes beyond that. Cambridge Analytica and the Mercers are being investigated by Mueller. So is Breitbart and a whole host of alt-right to right wing news and social media sources. He’s in trouble on both the Cambridge Analytica/Mercer front and the Breitbart front.
Leto
@Adam L Silverman: This is part of the idiot outrage over the Fusion GPS report. A cadre of dumb$hit little league players trying to compete in the majors. Running your campaign like a Trump business indeed.
Adam L Silverman
@germy: No, he’s long sought to launder his stuff through the NY Times or WaPo or other similar sources. This is what he did with Clinton Cash.
LAO
@MomSense: Flip. One of the defining characteristics of a Trumper is self-interest. I would expect that, in the end, self-interest “trumps” white nationalism (the other defining characteristic).
geg6
@germy:
Kinda was my first thought, too.
Adam L Silverman
@WaterGirl: Mueller and his team are going to either offer them a deal in exchange for someone more important (each other and the President and VP and AG) or they’re going to get charged and prosecuted. There will only be one deal, so whoever takes it and can actually deliver the goods will get it. The other one gets screwed.
Yarrow
@MomSense: I believe he does, yes.
@Adam L Silverman: Yep. Bannon is going to find Mueller’s investigation very uncomfortable.
Peale
@Yarrow: his hedge fund run of success is very suspicious, just saying.
Leto
@Adam L Silverman: That’s a majority of the comic book supervillain’s motivations: making the hard decisions to save the universe by wiping out all of existence… to usher in some type of paradise. Hell, it was a huge motivating theme in the pre-Disney Star Wars Expanded Universe novels concerning the Han/Leia’s kid. It’s so overdone and just… lazy. Come up with a new motivation to destroy everything, please!
Adam L Silverman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: No. Conway and Bannon are the route into the Mercers and what the Mercers funded like Cambridge Analytica, Clinton Cash, Breitbart, etc. Now it may be that Mueller doesn’t need them to get to the Mercers and what they’re doing.
Jeffro
@germy: ok, people in the mall are wondering why I’m laughing to myself so heartily here…WIN
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@LAO: In my mind’s eye, I see Papa Kushner whispering dark wisdom in Jared’s ear, like (IIRC) Robert the Bruce and his father in that Mel Gibson movie
Adam L Silverman
@Yarrow: Actually failure to hoard enough toilet paper is the most dangerous part of a hurricane.
Nicole
No kidding about consuming one’s life- my best friend said she had a really tough Christmas because her husband is so obsessed with all of this. Hell, I regularly visit the freaking Palmer Report for my daily dose of fanfic; not because I take anything he says seriously- he’s the king of taking a minor tidbit and speculating until the cows come home about it- but because it staves off the cloud of impeding despair.
Over Christmas, my brother and I both discussed how Iran-Contra turned us both into permanent Democrats (as teenagers) because it was so upsetting to see blatant crimes get committed and the main figures all get away with it. I feel like we’ll see the same thing happen here, because I’m sure there are a certain number of Democrats who have also been compromised, too, and there won’t be the stomach to take the collateral damage of taking them down along with the big figures in the GOP.
If there’s one thing worth banging drums about if/when we take back Congress in 2018 it’s pushing our reps to, no matter how good a friend they might be with a former member of Congress, to not take their calls as newly minted lobbyists. Until such time as that becomes a less economically attractive career for former Congresscritters, they’ll continue to not give two shits about what their constituents think, because they’ve got a second, more lucrative career all lined up one they’re gone.
The lobbyist thing is why I oppose term limits (well, one of them). The last thing government needs is for the people with the most experience in how Washington works to be lobbyists, who have no term limits.
LAO
@Adam L Silverman:
I slightly disagree — the feds like to beat a dead horse. There will be more than 1 cooperation/plea deal offered. But I agree it will not be offered to the true targets of the investigation.
Adam L Silverman
@Leto: Yep.
Adam L Silverman
@Leto: This is why I don’t write fiction.
LAO
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Jared is definitely the most interesting character to watch in this shit show. Don, Jr. will not flip but Jared I can see both scenarios playing out. His criminal exposure appears to be immense. Hmm. Looks like I may not be getting much work done today as I game it out.
Adam L Silverman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Papa Kushner is not to bright. Jared is even dumber. Complete deevolution of intelligent, tough, survivors in three generations from members of the Bielsky resistance to what you have now.
Jeffro
Looking forward to the shocked look on Trumpov’s face (tweet?) when he discovers that there really was a Russian mole in his operation all along…and it was Jared(!)
Mr Innocent, that Donnie. “ now let’s get back to making America great again!”
Amir Khalid
I wonder if it has gotten through yet to dem Scheißgibbon that there’s a good chance he doesn’t get to walk away from this and continue as POTUS. He’s clearly affronted that the Special Counsel has starting picking off people on the fringes of his inner circle, but he doesn’t seem really panicked about it yet.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Adam L Silverman: The first generation makes the money, the second generation preserves it, the third generation… snowboards and takes improv classes. -Jack Donaghy
or in this case, they may commit a little light treason in an effort to prove themselves to their daddies (ETA) and obtain financing for overextended and doomed real estate deals
Adam L Silverman
@LAO: I meant between Jr and Jared there will be one. Not just one overall. Mueller will Prisoner’s Dilemma the two of them off each other.
Yarrow
@Adam L Silverman: I’d much rather face a lack of toilet paper than storm surge.
MomSense
@LAO:
I think Ivanka is up to her giraffe neck in the money laundering mess so I can’t wait to see how that plays out with Jared.
Adam L Silverman
@Yarrow: Storm surge is not nature’s bidet!
LAO
@Adam L Silverman: Ah, then I no longer slightly disagree.
@MomSense: the sound you hear is me cackling.
Barbara
@Adam L Silverman: Yes, I think that Bannon’s statement that it’s all about money laundering could be a way to get ahead of the less obvious things that Mueller is looking at. Although I can’t imagine why he thinks that would be beneficial. It makes it more likely that others who have knowledge about his own shenanigans are more likely to cough it up, if they think he is more than willing to go after them. I hope that Don Jr., Jared and Bannon live out a real life enactment of the Pardoner’s Tale, where by trying to slay prosecution (the metaphor here for death) they end up slaying each other — all of them.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@LAO: I still have that trump-era feeling of “shocked but not surprised” that the story about Princess and Slabhead almost being indicted but for what looks very much like a bribe has been memory-holed
Yarrow
@Adam L Silverman: It is not. But you can improvise with other things to replace toilet paper and you can always use water like is done in many places around the world. Toilet paper is nice but not an essential.
Adam L Silverman
@Yarrow:
HERETIC!
Omnes Omnibus
@Yarrow: You’ve never been without it, have you?
@Adam L Silverman: Co-sign.
kindness
Steve Bannon isn’t inside the tent right now but he can sure burn the tent down. Why is it he reminds me more of a rage/jealous ex who is out for blood than anything else?
Adam L Silverman
@LAO: An entire family of geniuses!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Spanky: I was thinking reading that interview that it was Bannon’s own special way of saying that Mueller interviewed Bannon and Bannon made a deal. Things like Bannon is so aware of Prosecutor Weissmann, like say Bannon’s lawyer carefully explained to Bannon what Weissmann means.
And oh, no I see, no wonder they seem so unimpressed over Trump’s pardon threat. Money Laundering is a state crime too.
Leto
@Yarrow: The storm surge is relatively quick, while the after storm lack of everything is looooooong. Katrina member here. Also Hugo. I’m done with hurricanes.
LAO
@kindness: The larger question is whether the base stays with Bannon or Trump. I think that it’s possible that Bannon could win the war of the heart and soul of the base (or at a minimun break the base in half). The current front page at Drudge is hysterical. I’m still cackling.
LAO
@Adam L Silverman: I’m pretty sure she is.
RepubAnon
@dedc79: Stout heart, weak mind defense only works for specific intent crimes… the “knowingly” word in a statute.
Spanky
@LAO: Oh great! Donnie just burned one of our greatest assets! Treason of the highest order!
kindness
LAO: Bannon has the Breitbart wing locked up. Those loonies have been driving the Republican bus since Trump took office. So we’ll see.
catclub
@Leto:
But are hurricanes done with you?
Aleta
Brace for the story that Ivanka is working behind the scenes to prevent nuclear attack.
(“It would spoil my tax cut party, Daddy”)
Yarrow
@Omnes Omnibus: I have. Plenty of times.
@Leto: I’m fully aware.
Barbara
@RepubAnon: “Knowingly” doesn’t normally require the prosecutor to prove that the person knew they were committing a criminal act, just that they knew what they were doing and weren’t, for instance, sleeping at the time, or carrying a gun that went off accidentally. This is the normal standard for any conduct that is mala in se, that is, pretty obviously wrongful versus ordinary actions that one might be surprised to find were actually criminal. Arcane or confusing regulatory requirements can sometimes result in the prosecutor having to meet a heightened standard for proving knowledge. I hope meeting with representatives of a foreign government to influence the outcome of a domestic election would fall within conduct that an ordinary person would consider inherently wrongful, and certainly, people like Paul Manafort who were supposed to be directing a campaign.
kdaug
@Barbara: or the end scenes of “Reservoir Dogs”
Yarrow
LOLOLOLOL.
cintibud
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
So using this as a jumping off point, how do we feel if Bannon delivers the goods to lock up the entire trump clan but ends up going untouched as a result?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Yarrow: I’m torn between schadenfreude and terror at how the Beast might lash out
Yarrow
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Me too, but it’s still funny to think of Trump realizing Bannon is turning on him. Just hope he doesn’t decide to start a nuclear war.
burnspbesq
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Vance isn’t out of the woods as long as Schneiderman is still AG.
Betty Cracker
I’ve concluded that Dworkin is about as reliable as Palmer Report, i.e., not at all.
burnspbesq
@cintibud:
I’ll be pissed off for about ten minutes.
Yarrow
@Betty Cracker: It may or may not be true, but it still makes me laugh to think about it. A lot of this stuff we’ll never know the real story until we’re well past it and books start to come out.
Kay
I love the shock. Horribly corrupt grifters with bad credit were involved in money laundering? My God.
People like the Trumps are why money laundering exists.
Kay
I will say I don’t believe Trump when he says he’s not worried. I think that’s why he gave that interview to the NYTimes- to say he’s not worried. They of course eagerly allowed themselves to be used to deliver this bullshit.
I don’t care who you are, you’re worried about a federal investigation. It bothers him every day, every hour, every minute. People find ordinary civil litigation extraordinarily stressful. These folks are not sleeping well.
Adam L Silverman
@Betty Cracker: @Yarrow: Every so often he posts an accurate document or piece of info. That said, based on the excerpts that are being reported, Bannon stated that “there is no way that Jr didn’t take the Russians up to meet Trump”. So he’s now thrown Jr, Jared, Paulie Walnuts, and the President under the bus. That puts him squarely in Mueller’s sights, if he wasn’t already, as well as the President’s.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@gvg:
History had ended and we were victorious. How foolish we were.
Aimai
@Frank Wilhoit: I’m pretty sure they must have taped that interview.
Suzanne
@Kay:
Lordy, I hope this is true. All I have is schadenfreude at this point.
The Moar You Know
@cintibud: I’d take that result with glee. It’s not like Bannon’s going to live a long and healthy life at this point, have you seen what that guy looks like?
Is it possible to die from rosacea complicated by cirrhosis?
The Simp in the Suit
@cintibud: Then Bannon has to start worrying about polonium cocktails.
Leave no witnesses, right Vlad?
ByRookorbyCrook
Bannon is deflecting attention to the money laundering because he has little involvement in it. The Cambridge Analytica and Breitbart threads of the investigation are going to ask hard questions of Steve, protect the Mercers or himself.
Miss Bianca
@Yarrow: “expect an unhinged response”? You mean, unlike all his other completely, uh, *hinged* responses to everything else?
Frank Wilhoit
@Aimai: You might think, but (A) Bannon doesn’t use English that way (look at any primary source, there are plenty of transcripts of live speeches) and (B) he doesn’t hold the views ascribed to him (“more legitimate” than Breitbart?). We’ll see if he objects. Quoting him accurately would be pretty much guaranteed to provoke a libel suit….
NickM
@Frank Wilhoit: I was thinking about this too, but any paper that would run this story, and any interviewer actually wanting to avoid a lawsuit when his/her book comes out, would be certain to ask for and get permission to record interviews with these scumbags.
Frank Wilhoit
@NickM: I stand by my analysis, which is admittedly not rigorous. Fact checkers will have — are already having — a field day with Wolff’s work.
Shell Goddamnit
@germy: thing of beauty