He lost his job AND his mind: President blasts ex-top aide over treason claims
THE US President claimed last night that his former chief strategist had ‘lost his mind’ after being sacked from the White House.
Donald Trump hit out at Steve Bannon in an official statement after the former aide made explosive accusations against Mr Trump’s family.
Mr Bannon is quoted in a new book as saying a meeting during the presidential campaign between Mr Trump’s son Donald Jr and a group of Russians was ‘treasonous’. The 2016 encounter at Trump Tower in New York – after a Russian lawyer purportedly offered damaging information about rival candidate Hillary Clinton – was also attended by Mr Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
The Senate, House of Representatives and a special counsel are all investigating alleged Russian interference in the presidential election and alleged attempts to undermine Democratic candidate Mrs Clinton. Mr Bannon reportedly said he expected the investigations to focus on moneylaundering, adding: ‘They’re going to crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV.’
Mr Trump last night disavowed Mr Bannon, who was also chief executive officer of his presidential campaign in its final months.
His statement said: ‘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.
‘Steve was a staffer who worked for me after I had already won the nomination by defeating 17 candidates, often described as the most talented field ever assembled in the Republican Party. Now that he is on his own, Steve is learning that winning isn’t as easy as I make it look.
‘Steve had very little to do with our historic victory, which was delivered by the forgotten men and women of this country.’ He
went on to claim that Mr Bannon had been leaking information to the media while in the White House.
He said: ‘Steve pretends to be at war with the media, which he calls the opposition party, yet he spent his time at the White House leaking false information to the media to make himself seem far more important than he was. It is the only thing he does well. Steve was rarely in a one-on-one meeting with me and only pretends to have had influence to fool people with no access and no clue, whom he helped write phoney books.’
According to the book Fire and Fury: Inside The Trump White House, Mr Bannon told author Michael Wolff that the Russia meeting was ‘treasonous’ and ‘ unpatriotic’, and that he believed the Russians were taken to see Mr Trump as well.
The Kremlin and Mr Trump have both denied collusion over the election. Mr Manafort last night said he was suing special counsel Robert Mueller, claiming that he had exceeded his legal authority.
White House Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders dismissed Wolff’s book as ‘filled wuith false and misleading accounts from individuals who have no access or influence with the White House’.