Bannon’s fall from grace continues
UNITED STATES: Stephen Bannon stepped down as executive chairman of Breitbart News Network yesterday, ending his relationship with the far-Right website that he helped become widely influential and which in turn abetted his rise as a political adviser and would-be kingmaker.
Bannon’s departure – just days after his public criticisms of former White House colleagues led to a spectacular falling-out with President Donald Trump and his allies – was a humbling denouement for a figure who had reached the uppermost levels of power only a year ago. It leaves him with no evident platform to promote his views and no financial basis for his preferred candidates.
Bannon left Breitbart in August 2016 to join Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and later served as Trump’s chief White House strategist. He was fired by Trump almost exactly a year after formally signing up with him.
Bannon maintained his visibility by rejoining Breitbart in August and directing it to serve his political ends as the insurgent voice of the ‘‘anti-establishment’’ wing of the Republican Party, a faction that many critics saw as a socially intolerant and racist fringe of white nationalism.
His departure from Breitbart followed what appears to have been a vote of no confidence from a key supporter and investor in the website, Rebekah Mercer, a wealthy political donor, people at the company said. Mercer and her father, hedge-fund billionaire Robert Mercer, own a minority share in Breitbart and are influential voices in its operation.
Bannon provoked Rebekah Mercer’s ire by making critical comments about Trump and his family to author Michael Wolff in a book, Fire and Fury, published just last week.
Bannon is quoted in the book as saying that Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr, and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, engaged in ‘‘treasonous’’ behaviour by secretly meeting with Russian representatives during the campaign to get unflattering information about Trump’s opponent, Hillary Clinton.
Trump replied to Bannon’s comments by savaging his former confidant. ‘‘Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency. When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind,’’ the president said. He later attacked Wolff and the book in a tweet in which he referred to Bannon as ‘‘Sloppy Steve’’.
Mercer weighed in with a rare statement of her own that distanced her from Bannon. ‘‘I support President Trump and the platform upon which he was elected,’’ she wrote, adding that her family had ‘‘not communicated with Steve Bannon in many months and have provided no financial support to his political agenda, nor do we support his recent actions and statements’’.
Although Bannon continued to chair Breitbart’s editorial meetings and host its satellite-radio programme, Mercer’s comments appeared to signal his end, people at the media company said. Breitbart’s readers seemed to side with Trump in the spat.
As late as last weekend, Bannon continued to tell people that he planned to stay in charge at Breitbart and that he would keep his radio show. He argued that the show and the site were doing better than ever, even though associates have questioned whether that was true.
Bannon continued to tell others that Trump would forgive him, and the president was only a ‘‘vessel’’ in the movement and that the president was transactional. He continued to say that Breitbart chief executive Larry Solov supported him and what he was doing with the site while downplaying Rebekah and Robert Mercer’s public split with him.