Good to know political reporters are hanging at the Breitbart townhouse. That's helpful. https://t.co/exjkmWPhnK pic.twitter.com/u1A6X0dflp — Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) November 15, 2017 As in “the guy who’s about to have a major meltdown, live and on camera”? Somebody has it out for the man, because one doesn’t bring in professional assassin Olivia Nuzzi for just …
Open Thread: Steve Bannon, the New Karl Rove?Post + Comments (95)
Whatever the case, in the deeply weird environs of Washington in the Trump era, the Breitbart Embassy, as the command-and-control center of the far-right insurgency against the conservative political Establishment, has taken on a sense of ominous gravity — in spite of being more than a little ridiculous. If, like in Ghostbusters, there were a vortex above one building in this troubled city, it could be this one rather than the White House or the Capitol…
Built in 1890, the Embassy has a vibe that is less Office Space or evil-genius lair and more what it might look like if a wicked witch turned a Civil War reenactor into a house. Gold curtains adorn the intricately muraled walls, and crystal chandeliers float overhead. The carpet is a serene shade of blue, dotted with white stars. There’s a lot of gleaming, yellow brocade.
“This idea that it’s just, like, this band of pirates is not totally accurate,” one source close to Bannon said of the Embassy’s inner workings. This person stressed that although there are “an enormous amount of people that come and go and leave from the Embassy,” the chaos is structured…
“At the White House, I had influence,” Bannon said after being fired as the president’s chief strategist. “At Breitbart, I had power.” Through some old-fashioned PR guru moves, the perception of that power has only inflated since his return.
The lines between Breitbart’s publishing and political factions were always barely existent, but they’re even less clear now. By working for Breitbart, Matthew Boyle is also a political operative, and as the first year of Trump’s term slumps to a close, the outsiders of the Embassy are feeling more convinced of the nobility of their cause than ever…
Surrounding Bannon were other members of his staff and his movement, naturally, but also Establishment conservatives, people with ties to Paul Ryan or who had worked for Mitt Romney or Scott Brown. Late in the evening, Sean Spicer showed up. “All of these, like, Romney people eating beef tenderloin and ham croquettes,” a member of the media remarked, in shock. “How thirsty are you gonna look waiting to talk to Steve Bannon?” The room wasn’t smoke-filled, but guests quite literally slapped Bannon’s back and whispered into his ear. I even saw one guy I’d met in Iowa when he was working for Hillary Clinton; he walked around with his eyes bulging, like he’d sleepwalked his way into the party and had just been jolted awake…
I walked through the kitchen, where Stephen Miller was hunched over the counter, shoving cookies into his mouth. A few minutes earlier, to the crowd in the living room, Bannon had introduced Miller, a senior policy adviser to the president, as “the last man behind enemy lines.”
“It’s quintessential Bannon,” said a journalist who attended the party. “He wants to be seen as this populist, flame-throwing, take-on-the-whole-Establishment — and yet he has a Dean & Deluca party and clearly covets everyone being there, standing under chandeliers and taking selfies, and his private security carrying his bags out to the private plane to California.”
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that journalists in pursuit of free food & booze will show up for just about any kind of dog and pony show… but does that make the purveyor a “power”? This was a guy who had an office next to the Oval Office; now he’s holding conferences from his dining room table. (But it’s a very expensively decorated dining room!) “How thirsty are you gonna look waiting to talk to Steve Bannon?” Especially if the best minions Bannon can show off are Stephen Miller and Matt Boyle?
D.C. reporters rub shoulders with pro-pedophile, white nationalist supporting hucksters.
Hope the canapes were delicious! https://t.co/HoEiEx4CTN
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) November 15, 2017
i get that breitbart matters, but I can't imagine MSM outlets obsessively following a left wing news outlet under any circumstances
— Atrios (@Atrios) November 15, 2017