The rift of grab
Bannon: Chris booted for not backing Don in gal flap
RAUNCHY RECORDINGS of President Trump bragging about infidelities and lewd behavior cost Chris Christie his shot at a cabinet position, according to former White House aide Stephen Bannon.
The New Jersey governor’s reaction to the release of a 2005 recording of Trump making sexually degrading comments about women to “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush sealed his fate, Bannon tells CBS News’ “60 Minutes” in an interview set to air Sunday.
Bannon said the weekend after the scandalous tape was released was a “litmus test” in terms of who was really with Trump.
“Billy Bush Saturday showed me who really had Donald Trump’s back to play to his better angels,” he told CBS News.
Trump huddled his top advisers together on Oct. 8, a day after millions of Americans heard him describe grabbing women by the genitalia.
Bannon recalled then-Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus gave Trump an ultimatum: “You either drop out right now, or you lose by the biggest landslide in American political history.”
The conservative adviser — who went on to spend six months as the White House’s chief strategist — claims he was the only one in the room who said Trump still had an “absolutely 100%” chance of winning.
“The Billy Bush thing is locker room talk,” Bannon said. “It had no lasting impact on the campaign.” Anyone in Trump’s inner circle who thought otherwise was bound to pay a price, Bannon said. A day after the meeting at Trump Tower, the team jetted off to St. Louis for a town hall-style debate against Hillary Clinton. Christie, one of Trump’s biggest supporter after dropping his own presidential bid, stayed behind. “I told him, ‘The plane leaves at 11 o’clock in the morning. If you’re on the plane, you’re on the team.’ Didn’t make the plane,” Bannon said. Christie, days later told WFAN that he still supported Trump, but had “issues to deal with in New Jersey,” which prevented him from appearing at the debate. Bannon said the unpopular governor’s absence sealed his fate. “I’m Irish. I gotta get my black book and I got ’em,” he told “60 Minutes.” Christie spokesman Brian Murray shot down the Breitbart bigwig’s suggestions after a segment of the interview was released Friday. “As has been widely reported, the governor had been offered multiple cabinet positions in addition to other senior posts in the White House and elsewhere,” he said in a statement to the Daily News. “He chose to stay as governor and complete his term.” Christie, who will be term limited out of office in January, eventually wound up serving small role in the Trump administration as the chairman of a committee on the growing opioid crisis.