What the columnists said

Bannon says firing Comey was a major mistake

Bannon’s “hostile takeover of the GOP is just getting started,” said Jonathan Tobin in NationalReview.com. The Breitbart boss is reportedly plotting primary challenges against four sitting Republican senators. Those fights will suck “tens of millions of dollars” from the GOP’s coffers, said Matt Lewis in TheDailyBeast.com, giving a boost to Democrats in 2018. But maybe that suits the altright provocateur just fine. From his “revolutionary” viewpoint, he believes “he must first destroy the GOP, then save it.”

Bannon cultivates the image of a “street fighter” turned Trumpist intellectual, said Jamelle Bouie in Slate.com. But his “economic nationalism” is a smoke screen for white nationalism. When asked by Rose to defend himself from charges of racism, Bannon denied immigrants had helped build America and claimed it was “built on our citizens”—a deceitful revision of U.S. history. “As for Bannon’s alleged tactical genius?” He has helped Trump accomplish “nothing, save a low and sinking approval rating.”

Bannon’s most telling comments involved Mueller, said Paul Waldman in WashingtonPost.com. Trump’s campaign mastermind hinted that if the special counsel is delving into the president’s shady business dealings, the chances he’ll “find something fishy or even criminal are very high indeed.” And Bannon characterized Trump’s firing of Comey as a grievous error—implying it was worse than Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky, or “any number of decisions Richard Nixon made.” If it’s worse than those, “it can only mean that it could end Trump’s presidency.”