Summary: President Donald Trump has lashed out at Steve Bannon for his inflammatory comments in the new book, “Fire and Fury.”
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump unleashed his fire and fury against former advisor Steve Bannon, over Bannon’s comments in the new book “Fire and Fury.”
Trump, never one to let any criticism of him slide, blasted Bannon in a statement, saying that his former chief strategist “lost his mind” and was essentially a loser.
“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 stated. “…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’s harsh critique came after Bannon’s interviews with author Michael Wolff were released this week. Bannon allegedly said that the president’s son’s meeting with Russians during the 2016 election was “treasonous” and that Donald Trump Jr. should’ve gone to the FBI instead of taking the meeting at Trump Tower. According to Wolff’s book, Bannon said, “They’re going to crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV.”
Wolff interviewed more than 200 people to assemble his latest book, “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” and he spent a lot of time with Bannon, who was surprisingly candid about his criticism of the Trump administration.
“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 said to Wolff, according to The Guardian. “… That’s the brain trust that they had… The chance that Don Jr did not walk these jumos up to his father’s office on the twenty-sixth floor is zero.”
The revelation that Trump’s inner circle of Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort met with a Russian lawyer in order to get information about Trump’s political Hillary Clinton was revealed last summer by the New York Times. Months before, special counsel Robert Mueller was hired to run a federal investigation to look into Trump’s alleged ties to Russia and whether or not the foreign power illegally influenced the 2016 presidential election.
Trump has vehemently denied any wrongdoing, but Manafort and other Trump former allies have pled guilty to lying to the FBI during Mueller’s probe.
“You realise where this is going,” Bannon allegedly said in Wolff’s book. “This is all about money laundering. Mueller chose [senior prosecutor Andrew] Weissmann first and he is a money-laundering guy. Their path to f-cking Trump goes right through Paul Manafort, Don Jr and Jared Kushner … It’s as plain as a hair on your face.”
“Fire and Fury” will be released next week.
- Former Trump National Security Advisor Michael Flynn Pleads Guilty to Lying to the FBI
- Special Counsel Robert Mueller Assembles Legal Team
- Donald Trump Jr. Met with Russian Lawyer During Campaign