Grimm portrait of swamp dwellers
PRESIDENT Trump’s former chief strategist Stephen Bannon will back ex-Staten Island Rep. Michael Grimm in his bid to reclaim his old seat after serving time in prison, Grimm’s campaign said. Grimm spokesman Michael Caputo, a former Trump campaign adviser, posted a photo of ex-con Grimm and the far-right guru on Twitter Wednesday with the message “Game on. #MAGA” — an abbreviation for “Make America great again.” “We’ve joined Steve Bannon’s portfolio of Republican challengers to anti-Trump GOP congressmen,” Caputo told the Daily News. Bannon is organizing an effort to mount primary challenges from the right to incumbents he views as unfriendly to the President’s agenda, recently backing the successful campaign of archconservative Roy Moore in Alabama.
Grimm, who spent eight months in jail after pleading guilty to tax fraud, announced a primary challenge Sunday against incumbent Rep. Daniel Donovan, who replaced him in Congress.
Donovan spokeswoman Jessica Proud quipped it was a “bad day for swamp draining,” playing Trump’s favored phrase for cleaning up corruption.
Grimm’s “liberal voting record on issues like immigration, trade and gun control must have made for some awkward conversations” with Bannon, she said.