Former U.S. Rep. Ney talks Bannon, Trump `losing ground'
Former Ohio U.S. Rep. Bob Ney of Talk Media News joined Zuri Berry’s “Rundown” program on Boston Herald Radio Friday and discussed the departure of Steve Bannon from the White House in the wake of an American Prospect report where he was critical of the president.
Q: What are your thoughts on where President Trump is right now and the firing of his chief strategist, Steve Bannon? What’s your reaction to all of that?
A: As far as Trump goes, speaking of Civil War, which we’ve been talking about Confederate statues, I think there’s a White House Civil War. Bannon lost a round today in it because the president didn’t want to fire Bannon and (White House Chief of Staff John Kelly) wanted to get rid of him ... But all of a sudden, when Bannon disagreed with the president publicly in that news story, I think that’s when Trump yielded to the calls to fire him.
Q: So you’re referring to the American Prospect article where he sort of disagrees very publicly with the president on North Korea and basically says, those were fake threats that the president was putting out there in regards to going after North Korea militarily. I’m sure you saw some of the chatter as well that Bannon said he actually resigned Aug. 7. Are your people saying that’s not the case?
A: Yes, that’s not the case . ... I don’t think he did resign Aug. 7. I think there were repeated attempts to fire him and it was when conservative groups directly got to the president — one way or the other, maybe through his family — that Trump went through with the firing. I don’t believe he resigned at all. In fact, in the end it was Bannon who forced Trump to say, ‘You’re gone, you’re fired.’ He forced that issue. And although he may claim that he wasn’t fired, I believe he was.
Q: Senator Bob Corker earlier this week really went after Trump for his handling of the violence in Charlottesville, Va., and said the president “has not demonstrated that he understands the character of this nation.” I wonder if that’s played at all in finally deciding to fire Bannon.
A: I’m glad your raised the name Corker because Sen. Corker is somebody who’s very, very well-respected; he doesn’t fly off the handle ... this is sort of like a warning shot. When you get to a point where you get a man like Corker starting to say the president’s not really rising to the occasion of the office, it’s a warning to the White House ... I think it is a big deal and I think that if I were in the White House, I would start to pay attention to the fact that the president is definitely losing ground.