Trump says Steve Bannon has 'lost his mind'
Breaking News
begin quote from:
President explodes as book quotes his ex-adviser Bannon saying a Trump Jr. meeting was 'treasonous'
Trump unloads on former top aide Bannon: 'He lost his mind'
Story highlights
- "When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind," Trump said
- Bannon called a pre-election Trump Tower meeting "treasonous," according to a new book
Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump
excoriated his former chief strategist Steve Bannon in a statement
Wednesday, claiming that Bannon "lost his mind" after being pushed out
from the White House.
The White House released the strongly worded 266-word statement from the President slamming Bannon after after excerpts from a new book quoted Bannon as calling the meeting between a Russian lawyer and the President's eldest son, son-in-law Jared Kushner and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort "treasonous" and "unpatriotic."
"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 17
candidates, often described as the most talented field ever assembled in
the Republican party," Trump said in the statement.
Bannon did not immediately respond to a CNN request for comment.
Trump's
fiery statement marked the most significant rebuke by the President of
his former chief strategist, who since leaving the White House has
maintained an influential position as an informal adviser to Trump and a
de-facto leader of the President's populist movement.
"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,"
Trump said.
Trump also accused
Bannon, who has called the mainstream media the "opposition party," of
being too cozy with reporters and spending much of his time inside the
White House leaking "false information."
Once influential
Bannon
only joined Trump's campaign in an official capacity in August 2016.
But the Breitbart News chairman became one of the most influential
forces inside Trump's hectic campaign during the most critical periods
of Trump's battle with Hillary Clinton for the presidency. He and Trump
bonded over their shared instinct for bare-knuckle politics and similar
outlook on the core issues of Trump's campaign, such as trade and
immigration.
In his six months
inside the White House, Bannon was one of the President's most
influential advisers, leading the charge for Trump to keep some of the
most far-reaching and radical campaign promises and reminding Trump of
the expectations of his political base.
He
was pushed out of the White House amid retired Gen. John Kelly's
house-cleaning upon taking over as chief of staff in the summer. But he
retained an influential position as one of the coterie of informal
advisers the President regularly speaks with by phone, often to the
dismay of some of the President's top advisers who have clashed with
Bannon.
Even more powerful?
Steve Bannon comments on Roy Moore accusations 00:51
Bannon
maintained that he could be even more powerful outside the White House
and by some measures he has become a more influential figure. He has
returned to helm the right-wing website, Breitbart, and is working to
create an influential political network to back candidates who fit the
nationalist-populist vision of conservative politics that Bannon and
Trump have championed.
But as the
2018 midterms approach, Bannon's access, influence and power are now all
in question after his comments to journalist Michael Wolff in the
forthcoming book "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House" hit
perhaps too close to home for the President.
In
excerpts published Wednesday by The Guardian, Bannon is quoted
criticizing Kushner, Manafort and Trump Jr.'s decision to take a meeting
with a Russian lawyer the President's son believed would bring him
incriminating information on Clinton from the Russian government.
"The
three senior guys in the campaign thought it was a good idea to meet
with a foreign government inside Trump Tower in the conference room on
the 25th floor -- with no lawyers. They didn't have any lawyers," Bannon
told Wolff. "Even if you thought that this was not treasonous, or
unpatriotic, or bad (s***), and I happen to think it's all of that, you
should have called the FBI immediately."
Alabama race
Trump
in his statement also needled Bannon over his failed gamble in the
Alabama Senate race, saying that while Bannon had "very little to do
with our historic victory ... Steve had everything to do with the loss
of a Senate seat in Alabama held for more than 30 years by Republicans."
Bannon
backed the eventual Republican Senate nominee Roy Moore in the GOP
primary -- while Trump initially backed the incumbent Sen. Luther
Strange -- and continued to campaign for Moore after the nominee was
accused by multiple women of sexual assault and sexual misconduct with
teenage girls.
While
Bannon failed to get Trump on board with Moore during the primary, he
did ultimately help convince Trump to back Moore during the general
election contest -- in spite of the allegations and the wave of
Republicans rescinding their support for Moore.
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