Conservative media personality Steve Bannon suggested on Friday on his War Room program that Republican lawmakers who support former President Donald Trump‘s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement are bought by big donors.
Bannon, who served as the White House chief strategist under the Trump administration, told his listeners on Friday that there needs to be investigations into the criminal proceedings of Trump, who has been indicted four times on the state and federal level. Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, claims the cases against him are politically motivated as does his allies and supporters, and has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The conservative talk show host called out House Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan of Ohio, House Oversight Committee chair James Comer of Kentucky and House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana for not doing enough to help the MAGA cause.
“Once again. I beg of you. Where is Jim Jordan, where’s Comer, where’s Polly Pockets Johnson. Where are the subpoenas? Where is an investigation? Why are people not being held accountable? Why does it take [conservative activist] Mike Davis and [former Trump aide] Kash Patel and the same people over, and over, and over again. [Former Republican Nevada attorney general candidate] Sigal Chattah…Why does it take them pounding, pounding, pounding,” Bannon said.
He continued: “You know why, the fix is in. The donors don’t want it. What the donors want is [former Republican presidential candidate] Nikki Haley as prime minister.”
Haley, a former South Carolina governor and ex-United Nations ambassador, was criticized on the campaign trail as being bought out by her big donors before she dropped out of the GOP primary in March.
During Haley’s campaign, billionaire LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman donated $250,000 to the pro-Haley super PAC Stand For America Fund Inc. and the billionaire Charles Koch-backed super PAC Americans for Prosperity Action endorsed her.
Bannon told Newsweek via text message on Saturday: “The House Judiciary Committee should issue subpoenas for documents, staff depositions, and public hearings to the government officials and private actors who are conspiring to violate the civil rights of President Trump, his aides, and his allies by waging this unprecedented, Republic-ending lawfare and election interference.”
Trump and his MAGA base claim that the criminal cases against the former president are brought on by Democratic operatives trying to interfere with the upcoming election that is likely going to be a rematch between Trump and President Joe Biden.
Meanwhile, Jordan’s office told Newsweek via email on Saturday that “no one supports President Trump more than Jim Jordan.”
Newsweek also reached out to the offices of Comer and Johnson via email for comment.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Image
Earlier in the episode, Bannon talked about laying out a “battle plan” for a “blow out win” in November after Trump was found guilty on Thursday by a New York jury in his Manhattan criminal case, which is the first of his four criminal cases to go to trial.
In a case brought forward by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Trump was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records relating to a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 presidential election by Trump’s then-lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen. Daniels alleges she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006, which he denies. Trump has maintained his innocence, and his legal team pledged to fight the verdict and appeal the case if necessary.
“We are not going to allow this constitutional republic be run, be governed, be controlled and be destroyed by a gang of Marxists. That will not happen. Not on our watch,” Bannon said on his show.
Besides supporting the MAGA cause in the upcoming election, Bannon told his fans to be critical of the institutions already in place.
“The institutions that we have and the people in those institutions—it’s not a time for choosing, it’s a time for decisions. We’re gonna call them out and we’re gonna get all over them. And if they don’t do it, we gotta get rid of them and get other people that will,” he said before calling out Jordan, Comer, and Johnson.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
