Steve Bannon, the CEO of Breitbart, who was hired in August, 2016 by Team Trump to help with the election efforts, and then the transition efforts after the Trump win, then resigned in August 18, 2017, made enemies with the Trump White House, when it was implied that Donald Trump, Jr. did something “treasonous.” Based on reporting in The Guardian:
Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon has described the Trump Tower meeting between the president’s son and a group of Russians during the 2016 election campaign as “treasonous” and “unpatriotic”, according to an explosive new book seen by the Guardian.
Bannon, speaking to author Michael Wolff, warned that the investigation into alleged collusion with the Kremlin will focus on money laundering and predicted: “They’re going to crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV.”
It didn’t take long after that reporting for Donald Trump to fire back at Bannon:
Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my Presidency. When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind. Steve was a staffer who worked for me after I had already won the nomination by defeating seventeen candidates, often described as the most talented field ever assembled in the Republican Party.
Now that he is on his own, Steve is learning that winning isn’t as easy as I make it look. Steve had very little to do with our historic victory, which was delivered by the forgotten men and women of this country. Yet Steve had everything to do with the loss of a Senate seat in Alabama held for more than thirty years by Republicans. Steve doesn’t represent my base — he’s only in it for himself.
Steve pretends to be at war with the media, which he calls the opposition party, yet he spent his time at the White House leaking false information to the media to make himself seem far more important than he was. It is the only thing he does well. Steve was rarely in a one-on-one meeting with me and only pretends to have had influence to fool a few people with no access and no clue, whom he helped write phony books.
We have many great Republican members of Congress and candidates who are very supportive of the Make America Great Again agenda. Like me, they love the United States of America and are helping to finally take our country back and build it up, rather than simply seeking to burn it all down.
For those who hate Bannon, the statement is a gleeful, dancing-on-the-grave moment. There are many people dancing.
For those who hate Trump, the hope is that President Trump and Steve Bannon will burn one another to ash with their statements and hopefully coming feud.
These sort of conflagrations tend to hurt more than the intended targets.
Question: Why does Steve Bannon feel emboldened to say something now? Does he believe that the Trump administration is going down? Corollary. Does Donald Trump feel that no matter what Bannon says, that he can’t hurt him?
***
Meanwhile, Paul Manafort is suing Special Counsel Robert Mueller for exceeding the scope of his investigation. From CNBC:
Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has sued special counsel Robert Mueller, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and the Department of Justice in U.S. federal court, alleging that Mueller has strayed beyond the scope of the investigation he was authorized to pursue.
“The actions of DOJ and Mr. Rosenstein in issuing the Appointment Order, and Mr. Mueller’s actions pursuant to the authority the Order granted him, were arbitrary, capricious, and not in accordance with the law,” the suit reads.
Manafort’s suit alleges the order appointing Mueller “exceeds the Deputy Attorney General’s authority.” All actions taken by the special counsel “must be set aside,” it reads.
There is a question of where Mueller’s authority ends. This investigation has far exceeded its scope and the consequences have undermine the process.
And to top this day off, the Clinton’s house is on fire. Half the internet is already joking that they’re burning evidence.
What a day.