Despite it being a remarkably bold statement, Steve Bannon, former White House chief strategist, told CBS that the firing of FBI Director James Comey may have been the biggest mistake in “modern political history.”
On Sunday, in a CBS interview on 60 minutes, Bannon confirmed that he strongly disagrees with President Trump’s decision to remove Comey from his position, calling the FBI “an institution.”
Even though Bannon made it clear that institutions such as the House of Representatives and the United States Senate can be changed “if the leadership is changed”, he said the FBI is different.
“I don’t believe that the institutional logic of the FBI, and particularly in regards to an investigation, could possibly be changed by changing the head of it,” Steve Bannon said.
Additionally, Bannon said that if Comey had not been terminated, “we would not have the Mueller investigation.” Bannon is referring to special counsel Robert Mueller in this statement.
For those who don’t know, Comey testified before Mueller and the Senate intelligence committee back in June. And now Mueller is reportedly looking at a range of alleged incidents including money laundering and obstruction of justice. Further, numerous White House staff members and presidential associates have taken it upon themselves to hire lawyers.
When asked whether or not the firing was supported by Jared Kushner — the president’s son-in-law — Bannon declined to comment.
Jared Kusher is just one of the many rivals Bannon clashed with during his time in the White House. And in the 60 minutes interview, Bannon was determined to settle scores with a few of them. The former White House strategist suggested that Gary Cohn, economic adviser and Democrat, should step down from his position, rather than complaining to the public about the way Trump handled the violent protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, last month.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Cohn criticized Trump for saying that “many sides” were to blame for the racial incident in the college town, and he denounced the administration’s response to the violence.
In addition, Bannon accused the Republican Party leadership of trying to place a wall in front of Trump’s agenda. As of right now, the congressional wing of the party is showing more support towards trade deals like NAFTA. They are also more favorable to immigration, and less supportive of funding a wall with Mexico than President Trump is.
“The Republican establishment is trying to nullify the 2016 election,” Bannon said. “That’s a brutal fact we have to face… I think [Senate Leader] Mitch McConnell, and to a degree, [House Ryan] Paul Ryan, they do not want Donald Trump’s populist, economic nationalist agenda to be implemented. It’s very obvious.”
Furthermore, in the interview, Steve Bannon suggested that the current split over undocumented children has the potential to rip the party apart. He forecast that a nationalist, populist movement will prevail in American politics — however it’s not clear as to whether it will be of a left-wing or right-wing variety.
What does Bannon think? Well, he said that it will all depend on whether Democrats or Republicans take up the cause of trade skepticism.
Currently, Bannon has returned to his role as head of Breitbart, which is a right-wing media organization. However, he has insisted that he will continue to support Trump’s agenda against the pro-trade, and pro-globalization Republican establishment.
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