So now Don Jr. is a treasonous Patriot?!?
3
All this proves is that Bannon is a coward, in addition to everything else.
5
The word “patriot”, as currently mal-appropriated by the current holders of office, is meaningless. It has become a nonsense word.
6
The difference between traitor and patriot is two letters: PR.
Speaking of PR, how's that book selling? On Amazon, it's #1.
Controversy, real or contrived, sells books. Call me a cynic, but I wonder how many of the persons named in the book have a finger in the pie.
2
To Trump’s new “Sloppy Steve” moniker for Bannon, I now add the one I’ve been looking for to describe Trump: “Unstable Donnie”. Not only does it ring more true than others such as “‘lil Bob”, it also seems to get under Trump’s thin skin as nothing else we’ve seen.
2
Stephen Miller and Bannon are vultures of a feather. But Miller's parents must be deeply ashamed of their son who has betrayed his liberal Jewish background to join the Anti-Semitic Breibart crowd that in secret will always despise him. What pitiable figures he and Bannon are, acting out their personal mental problems on the country and using their pitiably sick president as their fake hero.
10
They have no shame, they barf insults at one another today and then tomorrow toast each other for their deal making genius.
This administration and their cronies stand to profit in the trillions if even the teensiest bit of their agenda passes.
3
Yes, Miller is seriously ill: schizophrenic probably. Bannon's red nose tells his tale. Neither will ever be heroes of the people and will be forgotten forthwith. Pitiable figures the two of them. One a Nazi who has betrayed his essential Jewish roots, the other an anarchist whose own pained life he blameson the American people.
9
If Mr. Trump or any of his 'allies' believe that Mr. Wolff's book contains lies or slanderous assertions, they have every right to sue him under the laws of the land which, despite their egregious disrespect for same, still exist. Somehow,
I doubt that this will happen, only more bluster and hot air on Twitter and Fox!
3
This make one wonder what the GOP Star chamber said to Bannon to get him to reverse gears enough to drop his transmission.
2
Stephen Miller's behavior is more than strange, more than ridiculous, more than cringeworthy. It is dangerous.
And like his boss, Miller is dangerous.
9
MIller? Please. He's a remora.
3
Steve Bannon's groveling at the feet of Donald Trump now that the Mercer family has cut off his funding and threatens his position at Breitbart shows just how rotten and discredited what passes for conservativism has become. The Bad Boy of anti-establishment Right-wing politics prostrated himself before The Donald, with a Don Rickles-like 'Just Kidding, just kidding; can't you take a joke...' response to his sudden reversal of fortune. Did he really think his doners were going to going to let Bannon destroy the most malleable, the most compromised, and the least self-aware politician they could have imagined shoehorning into high office? And the Presidency, no less. What was Bannon thinking when he attacked Mitch McConnell, that America's Great Unwashed would somehow rise to the occasion and vindicate Bannon's self-indulgent fantasies of a nativist tsunami that would sweep away everyone unlike themselves? Pulling back the curtain on the Presidential stagecraft, like the storied 'Wizard of Oz, revealed to one and all just how far we as a nation have fallen. Michael Wolff's exposé is flying off bookshelves everywhere. Republican lawmakers, governors, and lesser officials undoubtedly will be the last to jump ship, but the veil has been lifted from the eyes of many who have been willing to give Trump the benefit of any doubt they might have. We're passed the tipping point. It's over for Trump, and only a matter of time before he realizes and accepts that fact. Thank you!
10
Donald Trump Jr. is a patriot, and I am the King of Siam.
9
Jr. is a "patriot"? Define patriot.
Well, they have colorful feathers, curved beaks, and can often be taught to speak. Considered among the brightest of birds, they...
Oh. Sorry. Never mind.
4
stable genius
1
Amazing. Bannon the anarchist populist dependent for his powers on the patronage of the establishment ultra rich.
21
It's too late Mr Bannon. You let the Genie out of the bottle and it's not going to get back in anytime soon.
3
Oops! Too late, Bannon!
2
So Don jr is a patriot but Ivanka is still dumb as a brick?
7
Somebody got to Bannon.
Probably the Mercers.
3
The Stephen Miller interview was alarming in many ways, but I couldn't get over the new name for our plane: Trump Force One!
2
I find Steve Bannon and his Breitbart News repugnant. And while these events are just and right, there was (RIP) in Bannon at least a small measure of insight and even humor, and some kind of logic that I could follow. He was interesting, if toxic.
His patrons - both the Mercers and Trump - are not interesting. In fact, they are increasingly boring and tedious. His enemies - McConnell and Ryan - are toadies, skilled toadies, but toadies nonetheless. And they reflect the boring and tedious nature of their client.
In that sense, I will miss Steve Bannon. Sad.
4
If "Fire and Fury" is a work of fiction as Trump and his cronies maintain, why are they attacking Bannon? Their protestations clearly don't pass the smell test.
20
Can we start using the term "Fake Fiction" now?
6
Oh, please. The one true thing Bannon has said is his statement labeling that meeting as treasonous. Now he singled out little Donnie as exempt? I don't think so.
3
Months have gone by, but I remain perplexed that anyone, even those in the Trump camp, could take Bannon seriously for a nano-second. This man is damaged or ill in some way. This is clear not just in his appearance but in his words, actions, stated goals and Breitbart.
Look at the photo with this story. For once, a Trump gutter insult, Sloppy Steve, is way too kind. Bannon has problems.
2
This is the stuff of soap opera. The stable genius vs. the warped insider. While the two lovelies -Jared and Ivanka, hold hands and blow kisses at each other. And then roles change- villain is now hero. And the people making money off of all this are the soap companies and the media. The Trump mantra :Ivory will make your sheets white as snow.
5
Too late. Cat's out of the bag.
3
tRUMP ... bannon ... miller ... who else? ... mannafort ... conway ... spicer ... ALL of them seem to use words like a Rubik's cube. First one way (oops! -- another way) ... re-wind ... retry. Word salad. To those of us who find that words are best used to match observation to language ... word salad is what these minions provide.
1
Trump - Bannon bromance:
"Nothin they explain,
It's like a diesel train.
You better not be there when it rolls over"
-R. Hunter
1
Nothing to see here, folks! Everybody knows that Donald J. Trump was not a great student because he would have made his academic transcript public.
Everyone knows he has financial ties with the Russians because he has not made his financial records public.
Everyone knows that he lies and bad-mouths others but can't take the truth about himself.
Everyone knows he's not as wealthy as he pretends to be otherwise he would not have declared bankruptcy four times.
Everyone knows he's not a self-made man because he inherited the business from his father.
If Stephen Miller, Lindsey Graham, and Mike Pompeo, all dependent on Trump for something, is the best that Trump can do, then everybody knows Trump really has no friends; only folks who want something from him.
America, we're in trouble.
8
Folks... Trump is playing right into Bannon's hands. Bannon is going to take Trump and his entire administration out from the inside. I am not a fan of Trump or Bannon... but this is just to easy.
Rebekah Mercer says "Heel" and guess what Mr. Bannon does?
Dan Kravitz
4
"Frequently, the criminal is not the equal of his crime.
He belittles it...and slanders it."
Nietzsche
2
Bannon the Vice White Supremacist In Chief after Trump is a backtracking coward who is saying this only because the Mercers cut off his allowance, Brietbart will fire him, and Trump is done with him.
Bannon is the classic case of a guy who could be knocked off his high horse literally inside of an hour.
Let this be the end of coverage of this half-man phony populist who is as close to the working man as the characters in Seinfeld the sitcom he put money into and partly lives off of.
3
Good to know that Bannon is available for sale.
4
What a weasel.
6
Proof positive that whether your name is Steve Bannon or Joe Schmoe, our focus on social media and immediate gratification has made the prospect of irrelevancy truly frightening.
2
Everyone comes back in line. No matter what stands they make, no matter what verbal defiance comes out of their mouths. No matter what schoolyard insults they suffer. It really makes you wonder what carrots and sticks are being wielded. Keep your enemies closer, as the saying goes. I wonder what threats are being made.
2
Always a new low with this administration and its sidekicks.
1
I am having trouble understanding why a meeting attended by both Trump Jr and Manafort was treasonous for the latter but not the former. Makes no sense: but there's a lot of that about these days.
5
This is just Bannon, Trump, et al. Notice all the time paid by talking heads to this latest “controversy”...? Much less air time to talk about Mueller, but never mind — best that Mueller proceed without sound and fury. Trump and Bannon are probably still good friends.
After doing anything for money, Bannon is unmasked as the fool. Ignorant and confused about matters, more like the madman he is.
3
All I kept hearing over the weekend from Dopey Donald's supporters, including Sloppy Steve, that Dopey Donald, Jr. is a "patriot." Would some one please explain to me why these passengers on this ship of fools think that Dopey Donald, Jr. is a patriot? I've always been under the impression that one must do something, or try to do something, that is in some way patriotic. You know, like conducting one's life in a certain way that doesn't bring shame or disapproval on one's country. It doesn't even have to be particularly noteworthy. It doesn't even have to be heroic. Am I wrong?
13
Remember this is a man whose father considered that not getting hideous VD's was his own Vietnam.
3
Here I thought Bannon to be a (admittedly misguided and pugnacious) truth-teller.
Just another sycophant. I was waaaaay off.
4
Wonder what Wolfe has on his tapes? Bannon and others better walk lightly unless they are 100% sure of what was said over the last year or so. They will spin like tops trying to deflect or claim out of context reporting but tapes are damning if done correctly
5
The only thing Tapper could have asked him (and unfortunately didn't) was that Trump claims to only hire 'the best people'. Bannon was most certainly in that circle - even more than Miller.
Miller's a scary joke - but the joke's on us now. Because Trump is infinitely worse. And the Millers in this White House are actually running things - anyone sleeping any better at night?
7
The real scoop is what ex-President O has been up to. He appears to be in role of
Master puppeteer on a course clandestine endeavors of all sorts.
One can hope. Reviving American decency is a worthy mission.
1
I think the misunderstanding was that Bannon said that Donald Trump, Jr. had "...committed treeson" not treason or perhaps it was a pun. So difficult when the author has recordings of interviews.
Tired of being jerked around by ALL of them.
Believe nothing.
It changes every day anyway.
It's a dangerous 'game' to them.
(Just always remember who has access to the 'bunkers.' It ain't you and me, Joe & Jane Main Street USA'ers.)
5
So Manafort was treasonous for taking the meeting, but Don Jr was not. It's all so clear now.
9
Now Steve - Trump heard you. You can get up now.
2
I never liked Bannon, but I liked him lots when he was honest. This backing away biz is for the birds. And awfully disingenuous. I wonder who has the goods on him?
1
Trump will let him grovel publicly and then humiliate him as he did Mitch Romney. He'll cast him aside like a 10-year old suit. I'm surprised that Bannon did not think this through before all his harsh - but well-deserved - remarks. Perhaps it was the specter of the money spigot being turned off.
4
The Mercers cut off Bannon's allowance (funding for Brietbart), and Bannon gets back in line. How do his followers react to his grovelling?
8
Bannon deconstructed himself. Well done!
7
After one year most of Trumps close advisers have shown themselves to be unpredictable but mostly just nuts, just like Trump.
I haven't a clue how this dark story will end but it can not end well.
5
I expect that huge serving of humble pie that Bannon is ingesting has quite a bitter aftertaste.
3
Why is the Times wasting ink on Steve Bannon? We have far more dangerous people surrounding Donald Trump than this alt-right "wannabe power-broker". Steven Miller is the "acceptable" (and more dangerous) mouthpiece with more influence than Bannon.
We have Jeff Sessions systematically destroying American's rights and Ryan Zinke who thinks an ocean view should be dotted with Oil Rigs. These two- alone are enough worry. Why concern ourselves with an unwashed miscreant caught up in a wind shear of his own making?
12
Did you see Miller in that CNN debacle of an interview? His demeanor, mannerisms, eyes. Soulless.
1
Something missing here is the fact that Mr. Miller was not the only one who got upset, Mr. Tapper finally got so peeved that he stomped his foot, picked up his toys and went home. There were questions to be asked that both agreed on which were not asked. CNN did manage to show whatever audience was watching just how biased they are and how well Pres. Trump is playing the LSM. With him CNN does not have to do any real news reporting they can just bring in guests and then rant at them if they are Trump supporters and make a fortune doing it. Profits before principles. All the while Trump feeds them their stories as he goes off and does what the people want him to do. We'll see which makes better campaign material in November. Any bets this story will end up in the same trash heap as the Trump Dossier. Progressives don't even bring that gem up any more.
Dossier? Grassley and Graham have that covered. The are going to make it a best seller.
1
This is as phony as it gets. There never would have been any backing away from his earlier comments had Mercer National Bank not closed his account. Bannon's convictions buckled when the money dried up. Deprived of the funding necessary to wage war against all Republicans not meeting his severe check list, Bannon has proved he is no different than all of the politicians he lambastes.
12
Donald Jr. isn't smart enough to commit treason, is what Bannon is really saying?
8
Bannon your true colors are now exposed. Just another right wing megalomaniac.
8
Bannon knows Trump like a book.
His next move will be groveling. Lots of groveling.
6
Ignorance of the law re: treason is not a valid excuse, Junior. If Bannon says Manafort's actions were treasonous so were yours for being there, even if you just went along for the ride. It's a long way so the bottom, sonny boy; I could hope you didn't step on to many people on the way up 'cause you're going to have to pass them again on the way back down, but I know better.
7
We don't need Bannon gossip or Wolff's survey of opinions. Trump and future Presidents simply need to be required to both disclose tax returns and submit to a comprehensive medical evaluation before and during holding office.
The central nervous system is a major organ with many health risks; no 'physical' can legitimately ignore mental functioning and brain health. It is as fundamental as blood pressure & renal function.
Jeffrey Lieberman, MD recently opined that the only valid assessment of capacity and deficits is a formal and complete medical examination. This can be accomplished in 2 days by a skilled team at Walter Reed. Sadly, Reagan was only evaluated by his proctologist- clearly missing or choosing to ignore cognitive slippage in his 2nd term.
Dementia has an insidious onset, starting with mild cognitive impairment and personality changes. The 25th amendment may require a political action but surely reliable objective data can inform even the most partisan cabinet which- hopefully- cares about the nation and the public good.
Past efforts (i.e. Nixon) to limit an impaired president from doing damage should no longer be acceptable.
10
Michael Jackson went downhill hard after all the painkillers.
Unethical, ruthless, and narcissistic megalomaniacs eventually turn on each other. Only surprise has been how quick Trump has turned on members of his inner circle in the last year (Flynn, Manafort, Sessions, Spicer, Tillerson, Papadopoulos, now Bannon).
7
Bannon cucked by Trump. "I love it" - DJT, Jr.
7
Bannon has already established himself as a terrible person, but now he’s shown he’s also a cowardly and terrible person.
11
In my experience, the vast majority of folks who think they are a “patriot,” are anything but.
10
It looks as if Bannon isn’t stable either. To have said such things then try to take them back or redirect them is just looney. He is supposed to be a gifted political operative. He couldn’t see a backlash coming and didn’t have the grit to stand his ground?
President Trump has surrounded himself with people who are either unstable or corrupt. You don’t have to be a psychologist to know that he is choosing his colleagues based on how they reflect his own misbegotten values and impulses.
Clearly, the president is a poor judge of character. This should be a fundamental expectation of any president: he must be an excellent judge of character.
Unfortunately, there is no IQ test for that.
10
DTJr. is a traitor. DTJr. is a patriot. The answer seems unclear, at least to Steve Bannon who is confounded by the audience he is trying to please at any given spur of the moment. Here's an unequivocally clear answer to a different question. Steve Bannon is self-serving, cowardly bigot who had a nasty little "oops" moment that he wishes he could retract.
Oops, sorry.
7
Based on Trump Jr's actions, it's not clear whether Bannon mean Russian Patriot or American Patriot?
12
Senator Lindsay Graham, you should die of shame.
You know what these men are, yet you have come around to becoming a Trump defender. You served your country, you watched your dear friend John McCain be mocked by him. He isn't fit to lick the dust off McCain's boots, yet here you act like a beaten dog. He won? I don't recall any of you surrendering when Obama won. So you've decided to roll over with the rest of your colleagues and let dt drag the country through the mud without any further comment?
Truly sir, you should die of shame.
13
Republicans are presented with a catch-22. You're crazy if you want to fly a mission but only a sane person would want to be grounded. If the President is sane, he's fully responsibly for his actions. If the President is insane, Republicans are fully responsible for his actions. They're stuck with this mess. The situation is bad for everyone because no one is willing to take the fall. The most likely outcome is continued insanity.
I only wonder what leverage the White House has over Bannon. I would not expect Steve Bannon to change horses twice in midstream. Something is up. Bannon either said something stupid again or he's implicated in a bigger secret. I'm guessing he knows more than he should.
7
What a delight it is to see Bannon's "honey badger" act exposed for what it is, a phony trumped-up con designed to appeal to the resentful racist contingent. All of his ridiculous posturing as some sort of guru, intellectual, Svengali, or master of the alt-right "burn it down"universe is so much nonsense ginned up to raise money from his oligarch overlords. Good riddance to this misogynistic bully.
11
Beware the black-souled Miller. He is the political Roy Cohn of this White House, with not a drop of empathy or basic humanity in his constitution. From his grossly undeserved perch, he already has done and will continue to effect damage to the country. Hopefully, he is already in the sights of the Mueller investigators for his part in the conspiracy to obstruct justice.
16
Miller “destroyed” Mr. Tapper in the interview, according to Trump who was watching CNN Sunday morning. Was this interview supposed to be a challenge interview? Maybe perhaps a game show interview? Or how about some sort of video game interview? Saying Miller destroyed the host must have been a millennial moment for the president.
6
Profiles in cowardice.
15
Bannon: Remember -- better, learn -- what became of Ernst Röhm.
4
One Night Of the Long Knives, comin' up!
Rebekah Mercer showed how fake and duplicitous Bannon is when she cut off his funding.
So much for his honorable, principled and patriotic facade pretending to not budge from the truth, to fight for the common man, and to never step back from confronting the powers that are destroying our country.
Nice to see this sniveling snake exposed. I hope the rest of the GOP "leadership" suffers the same fate soon.
16
Benedict Arnold's left foot was more patriotic then any member of the Trump family.
9
The "walk back" proves one and only one thing. The right wing, call them insurgents, establishments, or whatever, will always bow to money pressure and hence the moneyed class. Plain and simple. Sad!
8
Alternate headline: Feckless Fascist Ousted by Overlords; Eats Crow
13
Interesting to see Bannon get on his knees and grovel. He's like the bully who crumbled when someone punched him in the nose.
13
I'm sorry: Exactly what qualifies Don Jr. (or for that matter, Don Sr.) as a "patriot"?
14
Bannon's attempt to wriggle out of the remarks Wolff provided about Trump Jr ring hollow. Even if the words "treasonous" and "unpatriotic" were meant for Manafort and not Donald Trump Jr, there is no ambiguity about who was going to be "smashed like an egg on national TV." Perhaps it won't be on TV but Trump Jr despite being dense will certainly be smashable when he has to answer Mueller's questions about the Trump Tower meeting and about his family's ties via Deutsche Bank to Russian interests.
As for the attempts by Trump sycophants to deny Wolff's' description of their boss, how different is it except in volume from the steady damnation we've heard from men like Tillerson? Does any of it seem out of sync from what we see every day from Trump? I mean, here is a man who used a libelous conspiracy theory, that Obama was not born in the United States and thus was not legally qualified to be president (wink, wink: that probably isn't true but as a black man, an African-American, he essentially was not qualified to occupy the White House) as is calling card to the GOP. If Trump has not by now lost his mind, he clearly had lost is soul back in 2011 when he embraced that trash.
9
Live by the sword, die by the sword.
5
Bannon's groveling, sniveling and backtracking are producing a delicious sense of Schadenfreude, but the far more troubling thing is what he and others revealed to Michael Wolff about this president and his administration.
According to Michael Wolff's book basically ALL of them believe Trump is mentally impaired and not very bright. They all seem willing to coddle him like he's a child. And Bannon, who was Trump's third campaign manager, alleges that Donald Trump Jr. and/or Paul Manafort committed "treasonous" behavior.
Can you imagine a close Obama or Bill Clinton campaign manager uttering such things about their former bosses, just months after stepping down? Even W. Bush didn't have anyone going this far, but then his brother, and not a hostile foreign government, aided his victory.
Impeachment should dead center on the table at this point.
9
If Bannon could flip so quickly after the Mercers pulled the cash, imagine what the President would do if the Russians threatened to call in the loans to the Trump Organization. Oh wait, maybe we don't have to imagine.
22
Remember just a few months ago when we were terrified at the President being influenced by Bannon and his doctrine of anti-Semitism and racism and sexism and holding Trump's feet to the fire with a list of all the crazy promises he made during the campaign and Bannon wanted fulfilled?
well, turns out that was a big fat false alarm. There is no Doctrine. There is no belief. The first real try at sticking to his convictions has ended with a scared old miserable man cowering to a another scared old miserable man.
Part of me is a bit sad Bannon blinked on this one.
7
It’s too late. The damage is done. You can’t get the steam back into the kettle. He said it, he owns it. The tiny little man has come out swinging.
5
Sure Trump Junior is patriot, a Russian patriot.
15
Ah...the munsters and their foible.
2
Proof that even when he gets it right he gets it wrong.
4
Trump, the Republican Party, and the people who support them are behaving like we live in the novel 1984.
Bannon is a hero! Bannon is a traitor! Deficits are evil! Deficits are irrelevant! Our leader is a genius! [Insert event] never happened!
I'm beginning to have a gut-level understanding of how thoughtful Europeans must have felt in the 1930s as they watched Germany spiral into the abyss. Surely, they must have wondered, like I do, why are they clinging to lead weights, even as they sink?
I can only hope that we can survive this administration without catastrophic consequences.
14
Steve Bannon has solidified his role as a total blowhard who will say and do anything to get press, attention, and MONEY. You are now officially irrelevant.
Go back to your cave!
11
What happened, somebody got the heebie-jeebies over that wonderfully precise headline verb saying that Bannon "Wilts" in my print edition this morning?
1
Like any slightly surly GOP lapdog, Bannon gets a whack in the nose, and comes back to the fold with his tail between his legs. He wants the monetary treats that his GOP masters will feed him, and compliance to their wishes is immediate.
9
How did we go from Nixon being forced to leave office because of a campaign cash slush fund, to the Mercers, the Koch brothers and Rupert Murdoch bankrolling politicians today? Is this an improvement? Is this campaign finance reform? Is this how we've decided to keep dark money out of our political system? Or has our politics and attitudes changed so much as to be recognizable? From Watergate to money is free speech. In less than a generation.
10
nixon reagan bush trump follow the bouncing ball
4
The only thing that leaves more stench than the package recently deposited on Treasury Secretary Mnuchin's door step is Steven Miller. Poetic justice for Bannon but Miller is a devious sycophantic creep.
16
Perhaps Mr. Nunberg can change his name to Nurnberg??
1
Why do legitimate news organizations give these obvious liars and shills a platform? Let them spew their lies on Faux News with its mentally challenged audience. I would be very happy to never again see any of these trolls on my TV.
7
Typical republican trait, Paul Ryan, Mitch Mcconnel, Bob Corker, etc
11
I should add that if Miller and Trump think going after Manafort will save them, I'd say the FBI prosecution will show that to be a fatal mistake.
Manafort can bring down the entire Trump administration.
12
A journalist is too late; an historian is too soon.
5
I'm struck by the fact that all of Trump's allies have been willing to sell their souls (regardless of whether I agree with their beliefs) at the drop of a hat to a man who stands a better than 50% chance of being removed from office.
Only Jeff Flake has shown some personal integrity in the matter.
GOP = DOA
8
Bannon's rare apologetic backtracking is driven by a shameless sense of self preservation. His book has jeopardised his political and job security. Like everything in life there is a price tag. His boundless arrogance gas been clipped by his right wing backers. His literary " masterpiece " has confirmed a wary nation's worst fears about presidential competence and shown it to be actually worse. Bannon's place in the dustbins of history are assured and its best that he fade away. Curiously, a couple other strident critics of Mr. Trump Senators Graham and Corker are backtracking too! Wonder what's up?
7
When the truth interferes with the lies this is what we see, grovel...grovel...grovel...lick...lick...lick. We all knew that what Wolff wrote in Fire and Fury as something that existed in the WH. We've witnessed it with incoherent speech and moronic tweets. Now Trump and the gang are trying to cover that up as well. Pathetic. Remember to vote in 2018 and 2020.
13
No guts...no backbone...no real path to reality...Republican suckups look like the fools they are...Let's hear the truth!..They hate him..loathe him..would do anything to get rid of him.....except endanger their $$$ and job...I believe there may be some sort of payola...back scratching...money promises...Horrible people supporting the #1 worst person to govern our country....As long as they get theirs..who cares?..
7
Music to my ears! Bannon like all others that support strongmen, has to be submissive and publicly apologize. That goes for everybody else in Trump's inner circle: condemn Bannon and say how the Supreme Leader is the greatest stable genius ever. If they want to keep their obs of ladies in waiting.
3
When Bannon’s money was threatened, then he saw the light.
Trump is a child. He thinks like a child, his emotions are those of a child and his ethics and morality conceptions are those of a child.
Understanding this I am released from the debate of what is wrong about Trump and why he did or said something.
Children are intensely self centered. In their minds the world revolves around what they want. They often think they are omniscient, all powerful and have fantasies of grandeur. Low frustration tolerance, patience and empathy are in the forefront. This is Trump. Detach emotionally from him while opposing vigorously.
2
Here's what we're living right now: the impoverished, near-impoverished, middle-income and solid-middle-income majority is watching a sizable bunch of rich and wealthy individuals carve up and divvy out the spoils of their heist!
Bannon is one of them. His greed got ahead of him and he went beyond their pale....now of course he wants back in.
6
I just finished reading "Fire and Fury." What a dysfunctional bunch! Bannon probably is the smartest, most perspicacious member of this brigade of Keystone Kops, but that is damning with faint praise. Now that the Trumps have ousted him and the Mercers are turning their backs, what's he going to do? Here's a suggestion: form the Bannon Socialist Workers Party and party like it's 1933.
8
It's hard to feel sorry for this hatefest in human form. Bannon has richly earned his place in the trash heap of the trash heap of modern history. Why won't he just go away?
11
Money talks, and the possible lack thereof, talks even louder. Bannon is like so many others in this WH administration, he has no moral compass, soul or conscience and can be bought or bought off at the right price. I am not surprised he bent like a reed in the wind. It takes character to put our country and its people over profits. No-one in this entire WH administration will ever stand accused of character or backbone. Bannon is just another spineless jellyfish. Trump must have so much on so many.
But, we don't need Bannon or Wolfe to tell us what we already know. Trump's actions and his deranged, infantile, and often threatening tweets are all a matter of public record.
We have a president and his GOP who are working for themselves and their wealthy donors only. They are working to destroy our democracy and deny the majority of Americans representation in their government.
We have a president who is unstable and unfit. If he is the 'stable genius' he attests to be, PROVE IT. Take a mental health exam as well as your physical, and undergo an intelligence test.
We have a president obsessed with the size and power of his 'nuclear button'. A Toddler-in-Chief who has the most well paid babysitters America has to offer. A president who has his business partners living with him in the WH raking in billions for Trump holdings while he whittles away at the paychecks of America's laboring workforce. A workforce of active and retired Americans who represent the majority.
11
Trump is the best looking, best read most thoughtful president ever. He despises sexual harassment, big booster of women. He is the best foreign policy president ever. He is so smart and adept he doesn’t need to fill empty positions in the state department or fill foreign positions, Only his brilliant thoughts and positions are worthwhile. Will restructure the entire world to benefit America first. At the completion of his fifth term America will be unsurpassed and all power and wealth of the world will be usurped by America. Trump is the Greatest emperor, OH I meant President ever. Do I qualify to replace Steve Bannon, I’m working hard on being the best sycophant ever!!!! I deserve a seat at the table!!
8
Bannon the political "genius" is outed for all to see. He's a sniveling, whining, craven hypocrite. A sad loser. That puts him in the same boat as the rest of the GOP that he boasted he'd destroy.
Friends don't let friends vote Republican.
Make America great again. Never, ever vote Republican.
12
Bannon should crawl back under the rock he came from. Every word he said for Fire and Fury was true, he just never prepared for the backlash. He looks like more of an idiot now. Actually, he and Trump deserve each other. Both are narcissistic egomaniacs.
5
This just proves the right is out of its mind.
Don Jr committed Treason!
Don Jr is a Patriot!
There is no way to say both of these things from the same mouth. GOP must distance itself from these absolute lies and the lying liars that lied them.
3
Self proclaimed Leninist wanting to destroy the Administrative State has self-administered a healthy dose of self destruction. The hunter has become the hunted.
7
Papa and Daughter Mercer threatened to take away his allowance and big, tough Bannon folded like a cheap beach chair.
15
Patriot? I think that we need to reconsider what a patriot is if DTJ is considered a patriot.
6
Lately I have been wondering what Trump's definition of "great" is as it seems very different from mine. Now I am forced to wonder what Bannon's definition of "patriot" is as well. Because in my definition a patriot doesn't meet with foreign adversaries to try to get "dirt" on someone as part of a democratic process.
5
Is there anyone who thinks "patriot" when you say the name Donald Trump, Jr?
7
Like it or not, Bannon is America's foremost thinker now. The Confucian ideal of a civil servant advising the Emperor is realized in him. Listen to his radio show if you don't agree -- it is very enlightening.
Economic nationalism is a force because of Breitbart and Bannon. Ben Shapiro, fired from Breitbart, can't get quoted fast enough hating his former home. He runs a competitor site, didn't you know.
As the only longtime Breitbart reader and fan of Bannon here, I'm sticking with him, and with Trump, Breitbart, and #MAGA.
Oh yes. Steve is America's foremost thinker. And bologna is America's foremost lunch meat. And squeezable Charmin is America's foremost newspaper. Like it or not.
4
There are A LOT of people who deserve to meet their downfalls and Bannon is only one of them. How about ALL of the Trumps and ALL of the dishonest and self-serving people who surround them (too numerous to name). Pack them up along with all of the Republicans whose spines have twisted and weakened because of all the 360 degree turns their spines (and we) have had to endure.
4
"A Chastened Bannon Changes His Tune: Trump Jr. Is ‘Patriot’"
No, Mr Bannon, I think we will stick with your quotes in the book as being your truthful statements. Why? Because there is so much more corroborating evidence from multiple, reliable news organizations that completely contradicts what you are trying to say now.
6
So what is the truth with these guys? The last thing they said? We never know because they're all serial liars.
6
Another swamp creature tries to rejoin the good graces of the Trump Crime Family.
9
Could it be the author Wolff got it wrong and Bannon was always refering to Manafort, not Trump jr? Did you contact Wolff and ask?
Bannon doesn't believe in anything but Bannon. And in that, he bet on the wrong horse.
1
Anyone who doubts Trump's patriotism is simply blind. And it is NOT white male patriotism as is shown by his appointments of Nikki Haley, Seema Verma and Ben Carson. White male chauvinists do vote for Trump, but they are not the only ones in his camp.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xT3FrEZwcbg
A stronger and indeed compelling case can be made that Trump is very rude and often irrational.
Democrats, for obvious political reasons, try to make Trump look worse than he is. And they HAVE succeeded to a large extent. Trump's popularity is only in the 30's. The trouble is that the popularity of the Democratic party is not all that much higher! (smile).
1
There is no way to make Trump look worse than he is. He's a deranged bigot. Get a clue.
7
Bannon and other populists are in conflict with the GOP on many issues. Why did Bannon cave so quickly on something he was right about? The tax cuts did not help the lower income and struggling populist base. Where will the money come from for that great promised health insurance or rebuilding infrastructure and create jobs for these people? Once again they have been betrayed.
So, Mr. Bannon it really “is” about the money, isn’t it?
12
What credibility do any of these people have anymore? Alt-Right millionaire, pro-white supremacy, ultra nationalist can’t decide if someone is Benedict Arnold or George Washington. The administration the. Sends it’s Bannon-trained minions out to talk over the press about how everything is very good ok fine.
3
I’ve always wondered how Stephen anti-immigrant Miller’s great grandparents found their way to America. Doubtful is was on the Mayflower. More like a saga of fleeing the shtetl, like the closing scene in Fiddler on the Roof. Someone needs to give that boy a good slap.
19
Are you asking for volunteers? I'd so like the job.
1
And now Omarosa looks like a woman of principal. . .
4
@ Sterling Here
You mean principle.
A example of principal is head of a school.
Ha! Got me, texting on bus home from work.
Paid handsomely by Rebekah Mercer. What did the President tweet about Kirsten Gillibrand and how she begged?
6
I trust Mueller will let us know if Jr. is a traitor or not. Seems obvious from what Donald Jr. released to the public.
11
'Mr. Bannon, who over the last week found himself isolated from his political allies and cut off from his financial patrons...."
Ah, tough-guy Steve Bannon forced to grovel for money.
And yes, it's tempting to make fun of Bannon's physical appearance (let alone Trump's!), but this kind of thing is beneath most people. But it's not beneath our great President. "Mr. Bannon has been the target of derision by the president, who has labeled him 'Sloppy Steve'".
The whole bunch of these nasty folks are chopping each other up, about which most of us don't care. But they're also working hard at destroying our free press, the independence of our officers of the law, and all the other business that wanna-be dictators get up to.
8
The Golden Globes hosts its evening of awards including appeals to the truth with rebukes against sexual predators which are met with approval and support.
Meanwhile, the Bully in Chief continues his own ongoing circus performing in the swamp of lies and deceit and any revelations to the truth are met with denials and derision.
Robert Mueller’s work to bring his investigation to a successful conclusion is now more important than ever.
7
And the comic soap opera continues with the publication of ' Fire and Fury '. The book is basically a rehash of ' As the White House Turns ' and reveals little , if anything that has not already provided endless fodder in terms of our President's megalomaniacal year in the Oval Office , his puerile tweets , his destruction of both the government as it stands and our environment in one fell swoop. The very air that we breathe is seriously threatened by the avarice and inhumanity of a Republican party that is totally in thrall to a corporate oligarchy that was just richly rewarded by a ridiculous tax bill that rewarded at least $1.5 trillion to the coffers of people and corporations that have no need for the money. To offset this rape of the larder will be drastic cuts in Medicare , Medicaid , and Social Security . not to mention some 30 million poor people being handed coffins instead of health care.
If you have followed the news , nothing that Mr. Wolff has written should come as an epiphany. The White House's over reaction is naught but deflection and a GOP that at first expressed a strong interest in getting to the bottom of the Russian takeover of our election process , is now back pedaling at a rapid rate and endeavoring to paint both Mr. Mueller and the FBI as being in bed with the opposition , whomever and whatever that may be.
Putting party over country is SOP for the big money folks in the GOP Congress. To ignore conspiratorial treason though , defies belief.
13
It's hard to fathom but a groveling Steve Bannon is more repulsive than the racist bully we've come to know. The threat from the Mercers's and Breibart to take away his platform and money did the trick. I've read a lot of the book Fire and Fury and I totally believe the Bannon stuff in the book, rings true.
10
Bannon must have thought he was taking the high road by excoriating Trump's antisocial behavior — and the treasonous actions of his offspring. Now he's realized that with the Mercers closing their checkbook, his ultra-right-wing juggernaut might have to move to the slow lane. Such a pity: I was quite enjoying the "Nazi vs. Dotard" imbroglio. Not to worry; it'll surface again once 'Sloppy Steve' crosses the Man-Child in Chief.
7
I called Bannon, back-peddle Steve, a man that tell the truth of a crazed President, then gets scared that his failing career would become worse after going after Grumpy Trump. Your a joke Back-Peddling Steve. LOSER!!!
8
Ha ha ha ha- trump And his minions - too late! All trumps tweets will be his downfall because the idiot has already tweeted and verbally stated he liked Comey when he was investigating Clinton but fired Comey because of Russia probe -
Traitors pigs liars and thieves all of them. Trump / Kushner brand will be synonymous with TRAITORSjust like Benedict Arnold!
And all the cowards in congress and the senate (Republican and Democrat alike) who assist this treasonous administration will hopefully be ousted by rational voters.
6
Two comments:
1. Bannon = Spineless
2. Don't the NYT writers have anything better to do than endlessly forking over the muck of the trump presidency?
6
@MB:
1) Absolutely
2) Apparently not... :(
1
The country's future depends on us getting through the "muck of the Trump presidency". Change the channel if you need entertainment.
1
Miller did not destroy Tapper. Miller talked loudly and non-stop, in circles around direct questions. The only thing Tapper did wrong was to invite Miller on in the first place.
23
Poor fellow, so far from decency and intellectual reality and so close to Covfefe. PATHETIC!
7
Now Trump, Jr. is a patriot? Sure - in what alternate universe. He has been taught and formed in his despicable father's image and has all of his fathers good qualities. He is a lair and a cheat and a swindler. He activities are treasonous. He makes his daddy so proud of him.
In the end, which I hope comes soon, maybe he can share a prison cell with the maniac, Jared and Eric.
9
There is a lot of deserved attention being paid to Trump's behavior and mental state, but Bannon and Miller and Pompeo (who had quite the little mental breakdown on TV this weekend) and the rest of the deplorables are as culpable as Trump. When you have madness running amuck at the top, you are equally likely to find a lot more of it than just in the top tier. Jim Jones didn't just have his sad followers; he also had his enablers without whom he could never have killed so many people. While some of Trump's people are merely stupid and ignorant (Donnie and Eric and Jared) and others are only craven (Mnuchin ad Cohn), still others (Pruitt, Miller, Zinke, DeVos, Sessions and Pompeo) are right wing fanatics with no respect for what made the US a leading world power. Bannon stepped over the line and now is scrambling to take his place again in the alt right world. It would be funny if a country was not at stake.
4
Jared is rotten to the core, he's a quieter version of Trump, greedy and dishonest.
2
Mr. Bannon still needs to get down on his knees and kiss the Godfathers ring finger in order to be allowed back into the family.
8
" Stephen Miller, who had been aligned with Mr. Bannon in pushing the president’s nationalist agenda, derided him on Sunday as a fame-seeking blowhard "
pot calls kettle black.
13
"Cowards die many times before their death....."
13
Turns out Bannon is the coward the majority of Americans think he and all these male supremacists really are.
17
Bannon cracked like an egg. Pathetic.
20
Blowhard Bannon has never walked back a statement before...
The Russian connection must have gotten to him. He'll turn up in an obit soon.
2
Jr. is a traitor and Ivanka is an air head...thanks for the tips Bannon.
8
Bannon chastened? Really? Bannon could no more be chastened than spraying perfume on excrement could improve its odor. Both are repulsive.
8
The only thing all of these clowns have in common is they all take pride in telling lies.
3
Cowards. Liars. Narcissists. They believe nothing. They want everything.
4
Of course Bannon was talking about the Traitor Tot. It was only when his sugar mommy, Rebekah Mercer, pulled funding he backed off.
5
Snake against snake against snake.
3
What a weasel! Like his (former) buddy, Trump, he is a bully, a braggart and ultimately a coward.
5
Steve Bannon: A great tower of Jello.
2
They are all crazy and all liars
1
Every time I see Stephen Miller on TV or in the Paper, my mind flashes to photos of Joseph Goebbels. It's those ice cold eyes. He is a very dangerous man!
10
Ironically, Stephen Miller is Jewish.
I know...however sociopaths come in all shapes, sizes, genders, races and religions.
1
Were Trump, Bannon, and the rest of the White House menagerie so totally fooled by Wolff that they didn't expect this coming?
Is Bannon such an idiot that he didn't think his disclosures to Wolff---whose resume is open to anyone----didn't think this was a dangerous thing to do?
Immediately, I thought (as did numerous others) that Bannon would have trouble with the Mercers and other Oligarchs who finance these yo-yos.
The whole incident comes across as a power play against Trump: did Bannon think this would actually work? Why?
Maybe others have some insight into this; for me it is just inscrutably stupid. If this is an example of their well-honed Machiavellian proclivities? Wasn't all this entirely predictable or at least probable?
This event is depressing on every level.
4
Bannon, the fake tough guy got punked. He played hardball then shows what a coward he is by retracting his statements about Don Jr. Bannon needs to go back to his cave and take the Neanderthal Trump with him.
4
Yeah, this creepy wart of a human, a pox of white supremacy, is now feeling sorry for himself, and asking people to love him because he is a lovable, vulnerable little child. Take your robe, your cross, and go away. Please.
4
Bannon's retraction comes too late. The American public does not believe this latest lie. Nor does the American public buy into his Nazi organization Breibart.
Many American men lost their lives fighting Nazi evil and we not forgotten their anti-semitic crimes. Breibart is unAerican and so is Bannon.
6
Money talks rather loudly, right steevie?
1
Bannon is obviously even more unstable than Trump. Why are you even reporting on this clown?
2
don jr is a worthless fool running after the approval of his odious father.
2
It's safe to say that Bannon is absolutely behind Trump.
Right behind him.
Pucker up, Stevie. Just close your eyes and pretend you've got your lips wrapped around another Guinness.
Pathetic and sickening. Both of these swamp creatures.
3
For Bannon. @Liar liar your pants are on fire." childish prose for a childish red nose.
1
Wasn't fake news when he was getting tons of free publicity from the EVERYONE in the press. You guys in the media are partly to blame for dumping this "stable genius" on these United States.
You covered his every move, lapped it all up and you were complicit in unleashing the portals of hell!
4
When good people go nuts. Hatch, Graham, Grassley... These senators once commanded respect for their independent leadership. Now, however, they have become "good Germans."
Like hand-wringing over the fascist underlings, Bannon and Miller, it's a miscalculation of the national will.
Halloween is coming... and the goose is getting cooked.
2
Democracy is a very blunt instrument as the election of Trump proves. The world, not just the US, has advanced beyond Left/Right dualism where complex problems are reduced to a lowest common denominator, in this case Trump. There is a mindful lesson from history on this:
“When you lie, tell big lies…It would never come into their (the masses) heads to fabricate colossal untruths and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously…The grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down" (Hitler).
Discuss...
2
Not really newsworthy. It's further evidence that Bannon is a completely spineless parasite but it changes nothing.
1
Bannon can't get out of his recent contradiction of what he said in the Wolff book. Besides, his book quote was more believable and mirrored his recent blow-hard statements. No, it's simply too late.
3
I think in alt-right terminology Bannon is a snowflake. He can dish it out but he can't take the heat. McConnell must be smirking now.
4
Well, Stevie, ignorance is no excuse. If there's one traitor in the room that makes all the co-conspirators traitors.
how's it feel to be fake news?
2
I hate everything Bannon stands for but he should stick by his guns instead of walking backwards.
2
In saying that he meant Manafort, Bannon is now saying that the people who should have known better were ,and are, corrupt, while the people while the people running the country are rubes.
Also that he's been pwned.
1
I guess the fact that the Mercers (and others) took away Bannon's 'allowance' scared him a bit, making it pretty obvious now what his motives are. Don's people flip-flop more than fish out of water.
3
They are inept and mad the whole lot of them!
3
He's a traitor. No wait. He's a patriot. The only thing that impresses me about Trump is that he has been able to gaslight 100 million Americans. And he's close to doing the same to one North Korean.
1
Traitors are the new patriots?
5
We were always at war with Steve Bannon.
1
A swift kick to the money belt will will cause a regurgitation of any facts, ideals, and honesty from even the most fervent republicant... But Bannon never had a real thought, a backbone, nor anything to actually speak about. ALT-MOtR!
I wonder how long before lickspittle Miller is removed in a purge; he seems too servile even for Trump.
2
I think Bannon is a coward. He found the courage to speak his mind and then went into wimp mode when the heat was turned up.
1
As Steven Colbert said and will probably say again "total 'cuck' move Steve Bannon"
1
patriot? to which country?
4
I wish the media would stop paying so much attention to this awful man. Bannon is an incurable windbag and works on manipulating the press constantly. The less we see of him, the less influence he will have on anything. He's finished, can we please move on now?
4
for a highly over rated media creation, who cares!
What a confederacy of dunces! Cowardly dunces.
Steve Bannon had everyone thinking he was an invulnerable tough guy, when, in reality, he's nothing but a double-talking, coward, and a bigoted bully.
When spoiled rich-girl Rebekah Mercer, who never earned a dollar in her life, but imperiously thinks herself a princess, announced that she and Daddy were cutting Bannon off, did Bannon stand tall, like Bernie Sanders would, and say "No, these are my principles, and I stand by my statements!" Nuh-uh, he went groveling back begging forgiveness.
The kicker is, that from every rational analysis, Bannon was right: Donald Trump, Jr, meeting with authorized agents of a hostile foreign power, to get "dirt" on a political rival to influence our domestic election, IS treason, plain and simple. "Treason against the United States, shall consist...in adhering to their Enemies [Russia], giving them Aid and Comfort."
That's exactly what DJTJ did!
Bannon, like Gingrich, is an ignorant person's idea of a smart person. Since Rebekah Mercer pushed Bannon on Trump, I'd say the Mercers may be clever but are clearly ignorant, as, of course, so is Trump.
4
To these people words have become meaningless, why do the media even bother to print them and give them free publicity?
1
Words have no meaning to these hypocrites. To Bannon, a Navy veteran to say that Trump Junior is treasonous for his meeting with Russians to meddle in a US presidential election and now backtrack to being "a great patriot" is disgusting.
Apparently losing your revenue stream from the far right wing financiers Mercers' John Bircher bank account makes you start to slime.
He got it right the first time with "treasonous"- the whole lot of them, including Donald Trump.
3
Come on Steve, grow a spine and stand by your judgments of others! Donald doesn't abruptly say "oops, my bad"!
From the National archives for anyone interested in the 25th amendment.
https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/amendments-11-27
1
Anyone who deals with Trump is eventually tarnished.
Trump, Bannon, Miller, Conway, and the whole coterie are pathetic, craven, incoherent and scary. The represent the Palinization of American politics. She may be gone, but the stench lingers on.
2
The feigned ferocity fooled no one. You've had your roar, Steve-o; now it's time to go gentle into that good night.
Per Bannon, DJT Jr. is both treasonous and a patriot. I doubt even Orwell envisaged that doublespeak could assume such a perverse form.
1
So o so on top of his other qualities, he’s also a coward. Is anyone surprised?
2
"Jake Tapper of Fake News CNN just got destroyed in his interview with Stephen Miller of the Trump Administration. Watch the hatred and unfairness of this CNN flunky!"
Exhibit A - Trump is unfit as the President Of The United States. No sitting President should be responding like a thirteen year old.
1
So, Miller is now new Bannon? One thing is clear in this sordid circus. Those who abuse and bully the powerless are the first to cower to the power. That is the hallmark of the rightie cowards. Not only Bannon, but also the likes of Graham.
1
Too little, too late. Birds of a feather--Looney birds!
3
Bannon and Trump are self-admitted anti-Semites and racists. Make America Great Again, should just be their stated goal: Make America White Again. It is disgraceful that the overwhelmingly white GOP by not condemning racism in all areas, condones it. Woe be unto them come November.
3
A miserable human being, more vulgar than Trump, if that's possible.
2
But Mr. Miller, the president’s senior policy adviser, acidly criticized Mr. Bannon in an interview on CNN, calling his comments in the book “out of touch with reality,” “vindictive” and “grotesque.”
You know what’s missing here? The word “lies.” Notice how he never denies the facts. He just slanders the bearer of the facts. This is what this “administration” (and I use the word so loosely that it may spin off the page) considers to be plausible deniability: “We never said it wasn’t true. We just said you must be crazy or evil to believe it.”
3
A "Patriot" would have called the FBI!
3
Oh he was talking about Manafort? And how does Bannon explain the remark about having zero doubts about Don Jr. walking those "jumos" right upstairs to meet his Dad?
It was an act of patriotism?
3
What a disgusting group of sub humans. I would love to get just one of them all to myself. Miller, Bannon or even Jr. We could all have a nice talk.
2
Bannon, where is your naval traditional pride? How could you praise the Trunps when the Infamous Groping Hands insulting you with classless terms as "sloppy," or "dog?" You should courageously help to restore the dignity of the US presidency, Please tell Special Counsolor Muller III and his staff what led you to consider the meeting at the Trump Tower as "ireasonouS" or "unpatriotcic."
It's the Kow Tow administration. Submit or be annihilated. America is done.
2
It's over for Bannon (hopefully.)
I didn't notice him taking back that Ivanka was "dumb as a brick."
Finally, the bombastic bleating that is the Bannon brand blows up with a "BANG!" Bannon's blowhard blather berating every being with whom he has the barest breach or break brings to mind the brainless bluster of another "B" player: Bill O'Reilley. Both belligerents bring to bear a base blueprint to their own benefit in which they bellow beefs, blast "buddies," and back-stab with a bonhomie that borders on berserk.
The scary bit? Bannon, the bullheaded buffoon, had "best buddy," anytime access to #45 and was the "brains" of the administration. Trump and Bannon were (are?) bond brothers in bombing the integrity of others, but when Bannon bites the boss's back, Bannon's booted beyond even the backwoods bounds of the "bromance" backdrop.
All of a sudden, Bannon is trying to bray that he, himself, is fake news. If this isn't a beastly "B movie" plot, then what is?
1
Beautiful!
Having spoken the truth (Trump Jr. engaged in treason; Trump is unhinged), Bannon can't now put the toothpaste back in the tube. Funny how the truth comes out no matter what.
1
Don, Jr: from traitor to patriot. Bannon's supporters (those that are left) will need neck braces for the whiplash.
1
Bannon, like Graham, Romney, Rubio, Ryan, McConnell and my Senator, the eel Ted Cruz, would sacrifice their eldest child to remain relevant, much less what few principles they ever had.
Now that Bannon"s "supporters cupboard" has emptied out, I gather he feels he has no alternative but to once again, "genuflect" at the altar of the "dear leader". When one looks at this entire administration and the leech "hangars on" like Bannon, Kelly Ann Conway and others that show up regularly on Fox and CNN to parrot Trump's lies, this bunch is a very poor imitation of a Mafia family, even Al Capone and John Gotti had "principles".
This is who is governing you now America. What are you going to do about it?
Well, Trump Jr's old man is a "stable genius", for all that matters. Perhaps Senior could get Jr a job at a big stable, and teach Jr. how to "shovel it"..... But, then, being a Trump, he probably already knows how......
I really don't care what Steve Bannon has to say.
1
What a snowflake.
2
Big Mouth Bannon, he must have been smoking something or drinking. Even someone like me who doesn't like Trump or the conservative agenda, doesn't think the meeting with a few Russians is treason. That's absolutely ridiculous. OK, so of course, Trump is a joke but now it's shown that his advisors are also a bunch of jerks as well.
The rats are chasing their own tails and biting all the other rats. Who will be top rat? It would be so funny if it weren't so sad and stupid.
Like all opportunists, Bannon will lie freely to restore his meal ticket. He is completely amoral. The known facts about the trump tower meeting suggest that his first assessment was accurate and only after blow back did he change his tune.
Time to dial down the attention we pay and leave his stewing alone in his private echo chamber.
4
Trump and Sloppy Steve are birds of a feather. They stand for nothing other than advancing themselves and their brands, and particularly feeding their gluttonous egos by imposing their will on everyone. Their principles are entirely expedient; their values flap and flounder like tattered flags in the wind. They're willing, even eager, to sell out their closest friends and associates as they consider necessary to protect or advance themselves. When they find themselves in a position of political power, they'll sell out the country as well. And, of course, the truth is something they bend, contort, or entirely ignore to serve their immediate interests.
Trump and Sloppy Steve deserve each other. The country would be best off without either of them.
3
So Stephen Miller moves up one place in the line to get thrown under the bus by Trump. It WILL happen.
4
Jeez, in a room full of documented liars, how does one determine who is telling the truth? Or, if as usual, none of them are?
A daily dilemma for the Trump Mob. One that rattling off "complete paragraphs" will not help.
Am I the only one really, REALLY enjoying this? Too much fun.
2
Rebekah Mercer yanked Bannon's leash pretty effectively, I wonder if she personally approved letting the always wild, unpredictable, unhinged Stephen Miller loose on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday morning. Jake Tapper must have been in flight or fight mode with all that snapping and barking.
Rebekah's father, Robert Mercer, must be a little confused by his man in the oval office who, he may be discovering, really is a sixty dollar haircut on a ten cent head, and not, "like, really smart".
Cambridge Analytica, a data mining and analysis company funded by the Mercer's must have fallen down on the job and not lived up to the Mercer expectations. So much for the reliability of engineered elections.
The Mercers hate all things Clinton (A common theme throughout all of this drama and madness) and, rather than just verbally assault Hillary while she is doing yard work, chose instead to finance the overthrow of the USA by a gang of misfits, losers, psychopaths and thieves.
Perhaps Ms. Mercer should find another hobby. She could re-marry. Stephen Miller is unattached (in more ways than one) and I am sure would prove a good match.
6
Donald Trump Jr. agreed to the Trump Tower meet with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya because she promised to show him documents she said proved Hillary Clinton accepted laundered campaign donations from Russian corporations, a violation of the Federal Election Campaign Act. However, he found the documents she presented unconvincing. Had he found the documents convincing, he probably would have turned copies to Congress, the news media and the Federal Election Commission.
How could this be considered treason? Wouldn’t exposing FECA violations be beneficial to the United States? How was the Trump Tower meeting different from the “opposition research” that went into the production of the Russian Dossier? We now know that the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee paid a former British spy—Christopher Steele—to meet with Russian officials and Russian intelligence operative in search of “dirt” on Donald Trump.
"probably would have" based on what, exactly? I'd like a list, please, of these prior good acts of DJTJ's.
McCain’s illness has unleashed Lindsay Graham from the fake ethical partnership he had to uphold. Another sad character tossing what’s left of their reputation on the Trump bonfire.
5
There go the principled "conservatives". It's obvious is it not? Not only the emperor but also his inner circle have had no clothes all along.
3
I guess this guy's following that Milo guy into obscurity. Meanwhile, those still employed in the administration seem to be not so much MAGA as gaga. The whole crew has always seemed unbalanced: wild eyes, shooting off at the mouth, grooming habits that are, uh, very casual. It used to be you'd see this kind of person babbling on street corners. Now they're in Washington and babbling on Fox or CNN (or Twitter).
2
We are at war with Eastasia. We have always been at war with Eastasia.
2
It's extraordinarily difficult to come to grips with being fully immersed in a new episode each and every day of the tragicomic "The Governing of United States of America" brought to us by the ensemble of Trump and associates who seem to be filling in for the Three Stooges.
1
I have zero respect for Steve Bannon. He rose to infamy on the spectre of promoting racism, nationalism, anti-immigrant, anti-women, anti-education and anti-government viewpoints. I would almost have a smidge of respect for him if he stood by his words and said: "Yes, that's what I said. It's what everyone knows to be true." Instead, he's become just another ridiculous weakling kowtowing to Trump like all the other spineless members of the GOP.
Elections in 2018 can't come soon enough. The American people are burned out by the disgraceful folks besmirching our image here and abroad.
3
Has Donald Trump Jr. served his country in any way, shape or form to earn the description of "patriotic?"
1
I have to say, I thought the Daily News's headline about this was both funnier and more accurate.
He discovered like all the other grinning fools in the original Trump Administration when the adulation stops it becomes night of the long knives.
2
Waiting for Trump's tweet:
"I'm a genius, a book about me is a best seller and my name is printed few times on each page."
Bannon addresses the crowd that supports him and it's enough that what he says is remotely plausible, they will believe it and Trump may believe it as well if is arranges him at some point in the future.
3
Hey, they believed that Richard Armitage really was the person who burned Valerie Plame. Worked once . . .
1
Who cares what Bannon has to say or even what is in Wolff's book. We can see and hear for our self's what been said and done by Trump to reach our own conclusion as to his competency. The GOP has decided to look the other way because they finally have someone in the Presidency that will rubber stamp any bill they can get through both houses. There's a recorded history of Trumps actions and it clearly points to a person that has no business being President.
History will record Trump and his facilitators as the biggest threat to our Democracy since the formation of this country.
2
Is there NO ONE in the GOP with even a shred of dignity? Of self-respect?
3
Why shouldn't Bannon change his tune? After all, facts, logic and especially consistency are all for losers, a philosophy widely and loudly articulated in both the Breibart universe (remember Sherry Sherrod?) and the Trump Whitehouse.
It can be convenient world view. When your entire political strategy is built on false premises, false equivalencies and just plain falsehoods, it's not really important which particular set you adhere to at any given moment. Just broadcast your new lies a little more loudly than the last set.
1
the first response is always the true one. hesitation is not a positive on this call.
2
Donald Trump Jr.'s actions were "treasonous". Donald Trump Jr. is “both a patriot and a good man." Bannon's "support is also unwavering for the president and his agenda.”
This guy flips more frequently than a fish caught in a net. If there was ever any question about his man's allegiance to Donald Trump and his presidency, well, keep questioning it. Who knows who he will turn on tomorrow only to retract his honest/false statements.
It's painfully difficult to listen, let alone, believe ANYTHING that comes out of Bannon's mouth. So now that he has backpedaled and quasi-apologized for his remarks about Trump and his family, how can one believe a single word written in "Fire and Fury"? Perhaps the title should be changed to "Liar and Misfire".
2
That many people claim to not be shocked by this constant twisting and turning to every breeze is a plain indicator that the public now sees the GOP for what it is...a group of self-serving political hacks with absolutely no set of principles, no sense of what "right vs wrong" even means. There are those, as mentioned in this article, who will contort themselves into whatever position is called for to retain 'favor' with constituents or with the money-lenders. And then there are the "other ones" - the Congresspeople who refuse to speak out, who cannot possibly not see the ignorance and incompetence now in place throughout this administration, at every level. Not standing up now to the horrific narcissistic banality that is Trump and his ilk, is actually standing up - not acting and speaking against it is supporting it. These spineless political degenerates are simply incapable of doing what's needed; they are so completely engrossed in simply trying to save their political hides, that they have sold out every bit of honesty and justice they may have had. We must act to vote out these despicable clowns, and look for people of honor and decency, no matter what political stripe they wear; we may have one chance to salvage this country's political, economic and social future...it is coming quickly in 2018.
1
I had little respect for him to begin with, even less now.
1
Didn't the very stable genius appoint Sloppy Steve as head of the National Security Council?
Apparently his genius does not include being a good judge of character.
3
Note to Steve: there are several things that backing away works badly to remedy; among these are your crawfishing, and explosive gastrointestinal distress.
I would have expected an announcement Bannon is on his way to rehab, but I guess he’s not ready to quit.
Bannon, like Trump, doesn't want to seem irrelevant. Sad.
Blowhard, Mr. Miller described Mr. Bannon. Blowhard describes today’s GOP. Blowhard does not apply exclusively to Mr. Bannon who in print described the meeting as treasonous, later corrected to one participant. The others, unlike Paul Manafort, being too inexperienced to be treasonous, a remarkable defense to a remarkable, common, crime. It is reasonable to conclude that the Chief Executive sent the whole crew, one experienced, the rest inexperienced, to the meeting, unless all were loose-cannons. Bannon changed his conclusion to imply a meeting cannot be treasonous if only one accidental, unauthorized loose-cannon interloper, was treasonous. Query: why was the Chief Executive absent from meeting in his own building with inexperienced functionaries whom he knew personally? Who was to compensate against inexperience? Mr. Bannon's correction relieved Trump, Jr. of bringing an action against Bannon for defamation of character. Trump, Jr.’s reputation is saved by inexperience and Republican patriotism.
Bannon said it and now he owns it. I hope his words do some good.
WHY?
What did BANNON gain by the back peddle? It would seem nothing.
Someone please explain this to me.
Evidently, Mr Bannon is not aware of the quote,"Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel."
1
Putin is not happy with his investments at all!
Guess Steve didn't realize that his supporters would leave him (like rats deserting a ship).
Too bad, Sloppy Steve (can agree with trump on that one). How does it feel?
I thought all Bannon cared about is the little people who have been shafted by the global elite. Turns out what he really cares about is the opinion, and financing of the global elite.
Some "populist."
20
Bannon should recognize tha he is in a hole and top digging.
At best, this episode shows that a bunch of craven, back-stabbing opportunists have found a place in the Trump Swamp. Snakes and toads, all. Without a scintilla of honor or integrity.
This is what happens when the only qualification that counts is loyalty to the man and not the country.
By his own emails, Trum, Junior admitted he was interested in gaining access to dirt provided by agents of the Russian government. Junior should have reported this to the FBI. Kushner and Manafort should have also done so. Bannon’s assessment was right.
Now Bannon wants to make Manafort the heavy because he was experienced. So Junior and Kushner get a pass because they were stup tadpole Seems?
7
No time to crow. Trump will welcome him back with open arms whenever it is convenient to him. Bannon will be more of a lapdog, but he'll put his tail down and admit it, just to be back in favor.
5
Bannon has just lost all he hoped for...minions who are far right. He now shows he does not stand for what he says and he really does not take responsibility. Sadly what he said was well-founded.
8
How's that Brexit thing working for you? Please don't tell the former colonies that austerity and fascism will work. Or that immigrants are our problem. We're all immigrants. If you think Bannon has anything to contribute to running a nation in the best interests of all its citizens, send him a one way ticket. We'll through in a course of tetracycline, a bath, and a case of cheap booze. He doesn't look like a fussy drinker.
4
"It's a war between the Jews and the non-Jews," Henry Kissinger is quoted as saying in Wolff's book. Robert Mercer and several other Jewish backers of Bannon pulled their support after his "explosive" comments about Kushner. What else is there to know?
5
Anyone who voted for Trump should take judgement and citizenship tests before they are allowed anywhere near a voting booth.
27
Also, presidential candidates should have to take a literacy test (at least.)
As one who has taken the test, I'd bet my retirement savings that Trump couldn't pass it.
1
Bannon is a master of self-destruction, a lot like his idol, Trump. He lost what little credibility he acquired when he trashed Trump/Kushner and now I wish he would go away.
When the Trump-Bannon-Ryan-McConnell-Hatch era ends (in November, please God) maybe we will be able to say it was all just a very long, bad, and surreal dream brought on by too much Fox News and Reality TV.
12
Invoking the 25th Amendment takes a lot more than a majority of cabinet officers deciding a POTUS is unfit for office. It still requires the same 2/3rds votes in both the House and Senate to impeach (indict) and convict. So, it is really just another mechanism to start impeachment proceedings. And, in fact, a POTUS has the opportunity to respond.
Democrats and Never Trumpers, who are not crony capitalists (if there are any), should be focusing on what this administration and this Congress (under GOP leadership) is doing and plans to do, NOT the daily media firestorm, which is just a distraction (deflection) and feeds the beast. Democrats better get their acts together because THEY STILL AREN'T LISTENING! They think they know best, and they simply do not take much input from citizens with concerns about policy and concerns about their pathetic messaging. If they stay on this track, they will not win anything, not the House and not the Senate (where so many Dem seats are up in 2018).
9
Golly! Nobody ever said this before!!
Have you notified Nancy Pelosi of the rules on inpeachment? How about Chuck Schumer?
Doubtless they need your...help.
Like all Trumpites - unprincipled. Regarding fact or fiction-impossible to separate with this group.
5
Backing away and changing course is in a good republican's DNA. In the party of do what we tell you and keep your mouth shut, reason and principle will always be flying coach.
6
So Donald Trump Jr who is the person who actually set up the meeting with the Russians in Trump Tower is a "patriot" and Manafort who attended the meeting is the "treasonous" one because he knew how the Russians operated. It just amazes me how pretty much anything these people utter usually gets completely walked back, denied or attributed to fake news.
22
The genie is out of the bottle and any publicity will only abet the sale of the book and put more fire into the "Fire and Fury".
5
Watching the interviews with Trump's minions is disturbing. Stephen Miller reminds me of those who support other authoritarian figures - the adulation, lies and obsequious behavior would make Putin proud. Mr, Bannon's ego got the best of him. Ms. Mercer won't give up her platform Breitbart, which means Bannon may be on the way out. There unfortunately will be others willing to fill his shoes. These are dangerous people. The ultimately do not believe in our democratic ideals. I believe one reason they were attracted to Trump is that they KNEW he was ignorant, and thought once he was in office they could manipulate him. They are only interested in an agenda which benefits their financial interests - not the interests of the nation. As for Lindsay Graham, I am greatly disappointed in this man. He seems to equate winning the election with mental stability and acuity. No - I do not want Trump to be successful, because their measurement of success means a continued degradation of civil rights, environmental protections and increased income inequality in this nation.
22
Looks like Mr. Bannon has learned nothing from his illustrious leader and comrade, Mr. Trump: Facing an inconvenient truth is easy -- just flatly deny it out of hand. If tapes of the denied conversations surface, just say it is a media forgery. Then ask for a voice expert to analyze the tape. At some point bring in "Crooked Hillary" or a one-armed bandit. The point is pretty soon the public interest in the original story wanes.
Seems to work with the American people every time.
9
Anyone recall footage of a school of sharks feeding on something; wherein, in the middle of the frenzy one shark bites another, and once bit the other sharks smell its blood and devour it along with the intended prey?
Who knew that Jacques Cousteau would be prophetic to American politics?
8
Bannon was completely correct in describing the Trump Tower meeting with the Russians as 'treasonous'. Even if he rescinds that statement, the fact that not one of the American attendees thought to contact the FBI reveals their treacherous motives.
14
Bannon could be described as pathetic if he were not so lethal. He must be really afraid to back track so completely. He has ravaged the Godfather and his family. Now, he must pay the price.
7
Follow the money. Bannon is nothing without the Mercer millions. They gave him a choice: recant or lose all backing. So now, in addition to having bad hair and bad skin, Bannon has one very brown nose. Sad.
13
How interesting. It seems That Mr. Bannon is now ready to retract his honest opinions in order to get back into the good graces of his money train.
12
Gannon is concerned about Bannon. I wouldn't trust his quotes in a book or his belated praise for the Trump family. Nothing is more befitting Bannon than his leaving, for good, the national scene.
1
But Mr. Miller, the president’s senior policy adviser, acidly criticized Mr. Bannon in an interview on CNN, calling his comments in the book “out of touch with reality,” “vindictive” and “grotesque.”
Descriptions that also fit the cretinous Miller to a tee...
10
When a person who lies and trash-talks others constantly, surrounds himself with "advisors" who lie and trash-talk others constantly, and they all play up to the wanna-be media outlets who lie and trash-talk others constantly, it's not surprising that they eventually treat each other the same way. When the truth and reality of what they done becomes known, through Fire & Fury, leaks, investigations or whatever, they don't know any way to deal with it other than more lies and trash-talking.
Trump & team have had a miserably unproductive year, not because they have some Party Of NO opposing them, but because they spend so much of their time making up alternative realities, berating others, denying their own actions and defending themselves, and counterattacking anyone who says anything negative about them. It doesn't leave much time for running the country.
Which of course necessitates shoving a tax bill through at the last moment just to claim they've done something, and running up against financial shutdown deadlines.
None of this horror and national embarrassment would be happening, but for the fascination that too many of their supporters have with the trash-talking and palace intrigue of this soap opera version of governance, and the willingness of a few wealthy people to fund this fiasco.
164
Unfortunately they have put in motion some of the worst positions we could imagine weakening environmental protections. They've actually been too busy vandalizing our country.
This is all doublespeak from Trump's spokespeople. Trump and his followers are really taking us into an Orwellian "1984".
Miller's statement *is* gratuitous obsequiousness, as Jake Tapper stated. Trump can't speak in paragraphs; simply watch him:
"Echoing the president’s own words from Saturday, he [Miller] called Mr. Trump a “political genius” who could rattle off complete paragraphs on the fly in response to news events and then deliver them “flawlessly” to a campaign audience."
Furthermore, if Miller is left to repeat Trump's words, what does that make Miller?
No wonder Trump had his cabinet swear unflagging allegiance to him; he knew that this day would come, because it had *always* come in Trump's past business dealings. So get people to swear loyalty to the churlish miscreant. They'll provide the mendacious talking points, and offer the pretentious boast that Trump can speak in full paragraphs.
And for Graham, let's see: Graham called Trump a "jackass" and Trump called Graham a "lightweight" and an "idiot". What credibility to these people have on the Sunday talk shows?
12
If, as Bannon charges, Paul Manafort was “treasonous” and “unpatriotic” for his participation in the Trump Tower meeting, how can that label NOT apply to Don Jr. and Kushner?
And how can the label NOT apply to Republicans who are desperately trying to distract the public’s attention away from the significance of the meeting and the subsequent cover up thereof?
36
I would also like to point out in this sordid side-show that Trump, who is at the top of our law enforcement, is now trying to claim that America's libel laws are weak because THAT is the lie he is telling us and himself for why he will -- for once -- not challenge Wolff's book in court.
The fact is, however, as written by the American Bar Association in October, 2016: "Donald J. Trump is a Libel Bully but also a Libel Loser."
From that scathing piece:
"Donald J. Trump is a libel bully. Like most bullies, he's also a loser, to borrow from Trump's vocabulary. Trump and his companies have been involved in a mind-boggling 4,000 lawsuits over the last 30 years and sent countless threatening cease-and-desist letters to journalists and critics. But the GOP presidential nominee and his companies have never won a single speech-related case filed in a public court."
So why all the suits? Because he inherited a family fortune and can pressure people to shut up about him by ruining them with court fees. He just tried and failed again with his empty threats against Wolff and his publisher.
And it's not just embarrassing, it's a dangerous and inadequate strategy that has manifest in his so-called foreign policy. Kim Jong-un just bested Trump by calling all his stupid bluffs.
And soon we will see Toothless Trump fold on DACA and the Wall.
This Trump Farce is no way to run the USA -- only RUIN it.
Please vote in 2018 to restore our checks and balances and Shut the Trump Up.
53
And these are the same people who accuse the Democrats of waffling?
22
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.
8
Until it comes time to vote.. We need an inspiring message from the Dems, not silence.
11
Have you noticed that none of the major news outlets (including the NYT) are giving Democrats much in the way of press coverage, interviews etc.?
It’s truly astounding that everything, and I mean EVERYTHING that Trump, Bannon and Miller say is a LIE. Whether it’s in their personal interactions, in their policy arguments, or in their politics, they are absolutely unable to be truthful about ANYTHING. That’s why any response to them sounds like hyperbole, because they actually ARE that bad. This country is in a LOT of trouble.
18
Now that Bannon dis-enfranchised himself with the attacks on the Apprentice, he shows his lack backbone after being disowned by his supporters. Think before you speak is not in Bannon’s lexicon.
5
Trump, simply the worst boss. President is not his thing. Bannon and Miller both his picks. It won't be long before Miller as Bannon watching from outside. Just catastrophic on Jake Tapper State of the Union. Bus tracks stamped on his back, Trump just needs to adjust clutch. This is a "No Confidence" Crisis. Forget existing 25th Amendment or Impeachment, an expedited "No Confidence" vote must be invoked.
3
And it's too late, baby now, it's too late,
Though we really did try to make it.
Somethin' inside has died, and I can't hide,
And I just can't fake it, oh, no, no.
8
In a White House full of Apprentices hearing "You're Fired - Period!" should not be a surprise!
4
Imagine how self-destructive these people are, then imagine them as part of the inner-circle of a president.
12
These articles are important, the reporting is excellent, but soon in the content seems fantastic and I realize I cannot possibly understand the nuttiness of characters being described relative to roles they have had or have.
15
So once again, the excuse given for a Trump’s horrific conduct is that he is essentially too stupid to truly understand what he was doing.
What is actually more troubling is that Bannon Bannon’s reversal, which is clearly aimed at only an audience of one, is a true demonstration of how stupid he believes Trump actually is. To think that Bannon believes that Trump is so stupid that he would even begin to accept that the “treason” comment was aimed at Manafort rather than 40 year old Trump Jr., the man who set up the meeting, was explicitly told of its nefarious purpose, expressed his happiness at the prospect if Russian government dirt on Clinton, and then lied about it, is truly frightening. It speaks volumes as to how stupid Bannon thinks Trump really is
17
There are some advantages to being poor and obscure.
I'll never have to be Scarecrow crawling on his knees to Oz: "And you Scarecrow..." as Bannon is to Trump.
Now, that's true luxury - not ever having to grovel to the likes of Donald Trump.
14
Stephen Bannon and Stephen Miller: like two sharks in a feeding frenzy.
14
"Steve Bannon Boy Genius"
Where for art thou great leader?
We now know Mr Bannon does see and perceive reality correctly. That tells us his rhetoric is nothing but propaganda. Sure the "movement" may be true believers but Mr Bannon has exposed himself as a fraud. How many more of these members of the 1% "populists" are just as phony?
7
Mr Trump tweeted that he wished for his own "Roy Cohen" to defend Himself against adverse accusations just as Roy Cohen defended Joseph McCarthy when that Republican Congressional house of cards started to disintegrate in the eye of public opinion. Well now Trump has his Roy Cohen in the person of Steven Miller who will defend anything Trump. Miller will end up in the historical cesspool of lies and manure just as the former Roy Cohen did.
14
Since joining Trump's campaign, Bannon has been referred to as a "tactical," "strategic," and "political genius."
Now the Projector President is calling himself (the guy who swears he's NOT a politician) the "political genius."
In "Fire and Fury," Bannon says of Trump, "He's lost his stuff."
In response, Trump says Bannon, "lost his mind."
No matter who Trump attacks, he simply takes his own worst attributes and tries to project them on his target. It's part of the ol' Roy Cohn strategy that had Trump frivolously sue the govt when he was properly charged with discrimination.
"Lyin' Ted."
"Corrupt Hillary."
Remember "I'm not the (Putin) Puppet! You're the Puppet!"?
It's juvenile, but it has worked because his PR army of Russian and American bots and trolls go into overdrive to make Trump's version of reality stick among his Branch Donaldians.
Look at Trump's past insults about others and you'll see how they are cowardly projections about himself. His latest, most obvious gem is from last week:
"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."
Trump is a Fraud and a Disgrace. Utterly Deplorable!
22
All bullies are cowards.
16
Sunday morning I received an alert from the NYT about Breaking News. I clicked. This article opened. This is Breaking News, why? Ummm... who cares if one greedy narcissist begins to sublimate before another greedy narcissist? How is this news at all?
Do we need a play-by-play of 7th grade wet towel snapping in the boys locker room? Cut it out! Enough already. Cynical people trying to be sincere is not news, it's pulp fiction.
Here's the news we need: a review of DT's executive orders and their implications; who is selecting/what process is being used to select the lifetime federal appointments and how far has it gone? who are these people? rumours float out about gutting of existing policies and institutions going on behind the scenes - who's overseeing this, what exactly? net neutrality - should one vote in an agency commission of a politically appointed five members be able to reverse policy that will affect hundreds of millions of lives and cost billions of dollars without a cost analysis? analysis about limiting authority of such commissions. Come on NYT. Do the hard work. Articles about complex topics that we do not have time to research ourselves. Five days of sensation about the Wolff book is enough. America is worried and tired. When the courts finally decide who are traitors - well then, that would be Breaking News. But not Bannon's mea culpas for his bad behavior and name calling. Until then, keep the bar high.
26
I agree, the NYTimes is doing nothing more than supporting Trump’s efforts to take our collective eyes off the ball.
2
Everything that comes out of this White House is foul.
11
Those who delighted in Bannon's words are now acting disappointed that Bannon is proving himself to be an untrustworthy ally. The enemy of my enemy is not always my friend.
1
Lindsey Graham is a grave disappointment.
71
I think the one good thing and only good thing that Trump has accomplished is bringing the republicans in Congress to their knees and removing their masks.
10
Have you not been following this guy? He has never been trustworthy. He rolls with the moment and has lied his whole career. He is disgusting, not disappointing.
5
And Lindsey Graham was at the frontlines of Clinton persecution/prosecution/impeachment . . .
1
As much as it is painfully evident that Trump is without question completely unfit,
nevertheless, it is not 'treasonous' to have discussions with contacts from other nations. Note: We are NOT at War with Russia.
It may turn out to be poor political judgement, BUT, if someone knows something important about your political opponent, its not illegal to speak with them.
2
He calls Trump jr. a traitor, then vows to follow the Trumps unconditionally. I think this sums up the Republican position quite nicely. They know there is treason afoot, but their loyalties lie elsewhere.
10
Our erstwhile Lenin, our Samson pulling down the pillars of the Temple of Dagon, abjectly groveling at the feet of a cabal of billionaires, begging for forgiveness (and, one assumes, some coins)?
Inconceivable ... .
6
Instead of labeling Trump with insults or mental health diagnoses, why not simply call him toxic?
Toxicity is something one cannot escape from unless one consciously opts to do so. Those who "support" Trump are trapped in toxicity. They can either denounce it or be a part of it as enablers. Miller is caught up in it, Bannon vacillates and Trump is completely oblivious to the whole thing since he is clouded by his inability to self reflect.
5
I find it interesting the number of broad denials, the whole book is fake, versus those who actually try to point to specifics. It does not seem to me to be a simple task to create a totally fake book, and no one is willing to delineate, at least, most of the fake accusations. Perchance they do not have backup to support such accusations.
4
Timing of Explosive Comments – not good.
Steve Bannon made those comments – and credit to him for not denying then – before the tide was turning against him and the more extreme factions of the GOP. Bannoon couldn’t get Roy Moore over the line and he was already running foul of the Mercers, his financial backers. Couple these with the passage of the tax bill and the political swing is moving towards a coalition of Trump and more “moderate” Republicans, such as Ryan and McConnell -
which will be enough for the Repubs to keep both the House and the Senate come November.
A Trump vs Bannon showdown? Bannon loses every time. He’s not electable whereas Trump is. Repubs want Bannon’s supporters )and they’ll get them as they have nowhere else to go). They just don’t want his candidates.
2
The mercers broke with Bannon in July when he proposed a 44% tax rate of on income above 5 million. Bannon comes from a middle class family and still has some of those values. He’s now with a bunch of vultures who claim to love the middle class but are planning on destroying it. He seemed to believe some of their rhetoric and now they are going to make him pay for it. I don’t feel sorry for him because, in other ways, he’s as bad as they are.
The republicans plan on destroying everything the government ever did for the people. Trump is just the show out front diverting attention from their destruction. All they have to do is to keep praising him and they will control the program.
9
Rats always know who feeds them, even if they occasionally forget.
1
Now there is a calling for Oprah to run for President. Rightfully so she is admired but I don't recall her ever discussing anything political and to me her views are unknown. . Yet there goes the public wanting her to run.
whose next, The Kardashians?
2
Peggysmom: You cannot compare Oprah Winfrey to the Kardashians. The Kardashian matriarch is not actually smart, but she is very shrewd; one could term her shrewdness: :Street smarts." Oprah, on the other hand, has an actual intellect, and she understands what it is to do good for others, (she has done much charitable work) whereas the Kardashians only understand what the trumps understand: Do good unto ourselves only, and let the little people grovel. The Kardashians promote nothing of import. Oprah promotes much of import. I am sure that even at this point in time, Oprah Winfrey can run rings around trump in a political, economic, or social discussion. And if Oprah needed to study up on the Constitution, you can bet she would do so! Oprah Winfrey actually took excellent advantage of the education that she got. trump, on the other hand, sneered at his expensive Ivy League college education, and according to students in his classes, and to one professor in particular, trump came to classes unprepared, and was totally disinterested...and talked only about his "NYC real estate." You cannot fix stupid.
Not to worry. The illiterates will continue to go for Palin.
1
Elin Minkoff You are reading me wrong. My comments were related to what happens when you vote for a candidate who is known as a celebrity and people vote for that person without any knowledge of their politics. Please reread what I said about Oprah; The Kardashians the bottom of the barrel and if we keep heading in that direction we could end up with them some day.
Bannon's collapse shows that Trump's policy works for him in dealing with associates & subordinates: Kick them hard when necessary or insult or threaten or demean -- and they will fall into line.
1
As a traditional Reagan conservative, I consider Trump, Bannon and Miller three fruits from the same odd branch. Infighting between them is welcome, but unsatisfactory as long as their worldview holds sway. They each hold to a worldview that directly contradicts Reagan conservatism. Their backward isolationist, populist nativism has zero in common with the forward-looking, optimistic, international free-market philosophy of President Reagan. As Sen. Jeff Flake's book showed, the Trump/Bannon/Miller triumvirate represent an abandonment of traditional conservativism. It's nice to see the dark fellowship breaking, but the GOP must do much more to restore the conservative ideals of Reagan above the worldview of this Machiavellian triumvirate.
7
Reagan Conservatives were pushed out of the way in 1994 when Gingrich’s ‘Contract with America’ took hold. Since then we have this twisted, malformed Conservatism that has misshaped our Government and Nation.
7
There is no such thing as conservatism or liberalism. Your hero invented them knowing full well it would lead us to this mess we have today so that he could subvert reason itself and with spin make people overlook hos dishonest he was.
Neither one of those words comes with a list of beliefs next to them. To be conservative is to be prudent and careful of new things until you are sure of how they work. To be liberal is to be open minded and willing to change your mind based on new information. All of are both and neither at different times.
Reagan was not conservative, he was an extreme radical. He adopted conservative as a noun to gain the gravitas of honorable pastors most of whom are regarded as being conservative in its correct prudent and careful meaning. Then as he developed his propaganda he added a list of beliefs to be placed under that word now incorrectly capitalized as if it were a thing and not an adjective.
When you see you live in a plutocracy that manipulates politics through cadres of nihilists, you know you live in an inmate run madhouse.
12
So accessory-after-the-fact to conspiracy to commit treason and recently turned trump sycophant graham now feels like everyone should want the president to succeed. Guess that only applies to white presidents.
26
President Trump hires the worst people
Every time
18
Equal rights and civil society that works for everyone are rarities in the history of the world. This king of the dung heap stuff is unfortunately all too common. We had hoped that humans were heading towards becoming more rational and learning to work together to solve problems, but it seems encouraging people to blame others, to exclude, to seek violent solutions, the "easy" path, is endemic.
We, the earth's apex predator, are about to meet our hospitable home; as we trash it, it will let us know that it's bigger than us, not matter how big our bombs, not matter how 'yuge' our self esteem.
7
So much for hope that the truth wins out when communication cannot be precluded.
Meanwhile, as the false "left" continues to distract people with Trump, as the right does as well, the people get poorer and the 0.1 percent get even richer. Our capitalist system destroys free-enterprise, democracy, human rights, and all liberties. Meanwhile, the corporate-owned and controlled media ("left" and right) deliberately polarize the people ever more to distract them from the fundamental issue of wealth concentration in the hands of a relatively few individuals and the loss of our liberties.
When people realize the obvious - that, fundamentally, there’s no difference between Trump, Obama, Hillary, Bush, the “left”, the right, etc. - then, We the People might be able to pursue Happiness. Doubtful though.
The Persian and Roman empires each fell after a thousand years for similar reasons. We won't last nearly as long. (And those empires even encountered episodes of invasion and sacking of their capitals and still lasted that long). How sad for us.
Maybe somehow this time this comment will slip under the NYT's censors and actually get published!
3
Thomas Paine: There is a BIG difference between Obama, Clinton, Bush, and trump. trump lacks ANY character, ANY integrity, ANY intellect, ANY morality, ANY compassion, and ANY decency. Bush, who I dislike intensely, had/has common decency. If you were to say about Obama, Clinton, and Bush that they were in the same sordid class as trump, it would just be an outright lie. We may not like some of the things these other politicians have done or said, but we also know about a lot of the good that each one of them did. trump is in a class by himself; a class of the worst character traits that a human being can possess. A class in which he learned, and now continues to teach, that only he and his spawn matter. And I think if push came to shove, trump would throw his spawn under the bus to save himself.
The bane of democracy...everyone get space to air their "truths" and opinions which make it difficult for people to know what is actually happening...
1
Bannon, you're pathetic.
Trump, you're incompetent.
34% of America, your clueless.
There are so many other accurate adjectives that I could heap on these three key players of our sudden downfall but Pathetic, Incompetent and Clueless fits just right for now. The fact that these 3 anti-forces somehow managed to turn this great nation into an international pariah and joke in just a few short months is depressing and astounding. I fear for what 2018 will bring.
26
Bannon or his publisher had plenty of time to clarify his intentions. But when someone implies that a person in the president family is a traitor, its purpose is to sell books. You can almost hear the anti-Trumps,shouting, "Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy." He will profit by the sell to Trump haters, but he lost millions from those that had supported him and still support Trump. I did read that Chinese money may be coming his way. This also may bis ast dance. We can hope so.
1
Bannon is not the author.
A dysfunctional society, aided by a system of election by electoral college, inflicted Mr Trump on this nation and the world. A conscienceless Republican Party, drunk with power, enable this bozo to shred the heart and soul or this nation on a daily basis.
15
Frank, we must demand that the corrupt, partisan, antiquated Electoral College be done away with, and if the republican party, infected, within and without, by putrescence and corruption, is running roughshod over the country and its citizens, they, too, must be done away with. Or do we continue to allow them to stomp on, and destroy, the heart and soul of this nation?
3
Does Bannon REALLY back away from his comments re Trump OR is this just another way to keep himself AND Trump in the Media headlines?
3
Rebekah Mercer. "Bekah'. This is what happens when the super rich get bored...
9
Sycophantic, Hubristic, Idolatrist, Trump apologist takes a cash hit for bragging about his insider knowledge and then runs as fast as he can back to the Brietbart teat by apologizing without actually apologizing. Ain’t that a kick in the head.
7
Bannon just threw Manaford under the bus publicly...you can only imagine what the rest of the rats are saying behind closed doors to the FBI.
There is no honor among thieves.
10
They were so close suspecting the microwave oven...
All the while twas Michael Wolff uncov´ring...
And how easy it was for him to get access. Just by pretend-joining their upside down rant that the 'fake' mainsream media had gone down in flames and been ashamed by Trump´s win, a 'win' the WH knows darn well was fraudulently engineered by voter suppression, Crosscheck and manipulating the voting machines in the key states. Just flattering the frauds basically.
So now they have to deny what they conceded off guard...
Yawn.
2
Welcome to irrelevance, Bannon. You and Milo can have a great time talking about the good old days (all 3 or 4 of them) when you were a force to be reckoned with (or laughed at).
2
Next, The Trumpeteers will be claiming that Bannon simply never said what he said and that the whole thing is 'fake news' planted to attack Trump and the whole gang.
Even worse in many ways than the assault on politics, the economy, the environment, and social programs, etc., is the assault on the basic concept of truth and objective facts. Some things ARE facts: people say or do things that that no amount of erasing or lying about can change, after the fact.
5
Why is this book such a big deal? It was not a secret that Trump is an egotistical narcissist, a misogynist, only out for himself, and totally unfit for the presidency. One only had to pay attention to him during his campaign. The people who are really responsible for the current debacle are the hypocrites and sycophants in the White House and the Republican party who made this disaster possible and are now enabling him. Spineless creatures that should be held accountable!
12
If anyone doubts the zombie apocalypse, just look directly into the eyes of Steven Miller. Pure evil.
14
Many of us thought that Donald Trump learned his lessons from Stephen K. Bannon: Always attack and never ever apologize.
Now, strongly chastised by Trump and Trump’s chief hit man, Stephen Miller, Bannon meekly offers an apology.
Could it be that Trump was never the student of Bannon and that Bannon learned from Trump’s feral instinct for survival: When cornered, always strike out viciously?
2
This guy now need to go Vatican and work for Pope. He is an Irish Catholic.
The Pope is a good person and Bannon is most obviously not.
The Pope, properly so, would not want him tainting his mission.
2
Please don’t drag Irish Catholics into this- my entire extended family (parents were both 1 of 12) hates Trump, this administration, and everyone that comes along with it. Catholicism has nothing to do with this abomination
Praying for absolution, Bannon backtracks for bundles - of Mercer millions to keep himself and Breitbart, that beacon of hope, afloat. It's a small personal humiliation aimed at getting him out of the Trump gang's doghouse and since principles and truth in this alternative universe are elastic, it's no big deal on that score either. Stability returns to Steve Bannon and his genius blossoms anew.
1
Those who think it's only Trump who's owned by Putin are wrong, imho.
Putin has tapes, files, hacked emails, dossiers, etc., etc., etc. on ALL of them. The craven senators, of course, and everyone in Congress, the Cabinet, SCOTUS, Trump family, etc. They all must obey the Russian master OR ELSE.
Our country is toast. Russia won without firing a shot.
5
Does anyone really trust Bannon? Trump has surrounded himself with liars from the beginning. They are a nefarious group, with Trump (himself a pathological liar) as their leader. To some extent, I blame the press and Congressional Democrats... who seem to be reluctant to call liars out on their lies. You must say the word: LIE.
3
No doubt Bannon's mea culpa was influenced by the Mercers who own a controlling stake in Breitbart. Bannon would be voiceless and rudderless without Breitbart.
4
Remember, folks, this is the National Embarrassment's `well-tuned machine'.
3
I'm afraid the world is savoring watching this toxic, destructive human being grovel and snivel. It's better than Christmas morning.
3
This moment is not about the despicable Stephen Bannon.
It’s about what America has come to: truckle under to Donald J. Trump or be destroyed.
With the support of people who once claimed to honor self-government and small government, we bend the knee. And not just to any monarch, but to the stupidest, most ignorant tinpot tyrant imaginable.
Republicans may be willing to throw away their country and its legacy that way. Not me.
4
It is both astonishing and predictable that " Sloppy Steve" changed his tune about the Trump progeny. In the blink of an eye, he went from boldly castigating Don,Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort for meeting with a posse of Russians with ties to Putin to obtain illegally hacked emails that contained dirt about Secretary Clinton. He condemned them in no uncertain terms as unpatriotic and treasonous. Then after being taken to the woodshed by the Potus and his Breitbart donors, the Mercers, the bold and brash Bannon instantly became a wimpy,crying sycophant anxious to be allowed back in the clubhouse. Now he is proclaiming Don,Jr. as a Patriot ( with a capital P) and a hero. He is claiming Wolff made him say things he really doesn't believe.( Although ,he hasn't apologized for calling Ivanka dumb as a brick. ).The political lesson is when you are castrated by your "puppet" and donors,you will sing a different tune. The life lesson ,if you dig a pit for someone else,you fall in it yourself. Enjoy the pit, Sloppy Steve.
4
Bannon put his money on the wrong horse. He lost. No Do-Overs
2
Who cares what this guy has to say? I don't get it.
2
So-called 'Conservative' America,
I want a divorce.
Sick of your lies. Sick of your empty promises. Sick of your conceit. Sick of your violent obsessions. Sick of your creepy friends. Sick of you saying you’re one thing, when you’re really another.
If I had a mother to go home to, I'd go home to my mother. Since I don't, I'm kicking you out of the house. Leave your key on the table; not that it matters – I’ll be changing the locks. Your stuff will be on the lawn.
I tried making it work with you for eight long years. Not one more day. You think you can stick it to me by emptying out our bank account. Take it. You think you got everything? You got nothing.
Bye bye, baby, bye bye. And don't be thinking about me on those cold lonely nights, because I sure won't be thinking about you.
I can feel the freedom already. I can’t imagine why I put up with you for so long.
10
Did Donald Trump actually call another person a fame-seeking blowhard?
7
Bannon confirmed Manafort committed treason in Trump Tower meeting just like Steele Dossier said. He should have And did know better. Manafort and Trump planned this. Trump was probably on the phone before during or after the TrumpTower Meeting. Manafort managed communication with Russians and Putin thru Page & "others." One "other" was Papadopoulos. Trump announced he'd have a press conference abt HRC dirt after the meeting. Someone like Manafort smartly said no We can't release the information, so they had Wikileaks do it at opportune times. It's all there. Mueller has it. Republicans are busy defending Trump because, like attempts to find dirt on HRC & had Sessions find something on Comey, he found dirt & Emails from the Russians on Republicans.They may have taken Russian Money into their Campaigns and More. Probably why Graham, Paul, Ryan, McConnell & maybe even Capito all changed their tune to Sychophants for Dear Leader. Blackmail is a horrible thing, but when he can control Republicans he can keep his illegitimate Presidency a little longer...
3
Is anyone else tired of the amount of space the NYT is giving to Steve Bannon? Yes, we want to know the story. But not over and over and over and every stupid little think Bannon or Trump says. NYT you are giving these guys just what they thrive on; nonstop attention for ultimately irrelevant stuff.
4
'Sloppy Steve' (S.S. for short) at odds with Stephen Miller?
Those two are on the same White Nationalist team, in case you didn't know.
2
Two more aspects that should have been noted:
(1) Miller has only to gain by discrediting Bannon. Bannon's fall from grace makes Miller the chief alt-right policy maker rather than merely the assistant to the chief.
(2) Miller can't have it both ways by insisting that the book is total fiction but Bannon should be condemned for what this fictitious book quotes him as saying.
3
Never equate wealth with intelligence.
19
Yes, I want him to be a successful president. But he doesn't he doesn't want to be president, he wants to be king. I don't want a king, especially not this guy.
4
Apparently Mr. Trump cannot comment directly on the book because so far no one has taken the time to read it to him.
10
Listening to Stephen Miller have a meltdown sounding like a fool yesterday with Jake Tapper, put on a show for his audience of one. Miller who is a Trump Bootlicker of the highest order, and the number one Trump policy adviser should frighten everyone for his embarrassing performance, by the way who says "dinasty" instead of "dynasty".....a pseudo elitist.
Anyone who has watched Trump through the years, the campaign, listened to him on Howard Stern, on the Billy Bush bus or in his many diatribes on twitter, since being president, already know that this narcissist and pathological liar that makes EVERYTHING about himself, knows the book "Fire and Fury" rings totally true.
How many smart people or even successful self made people brag about how smart they are, stable or call themselves geniuses; only people that are insecure and not that smart at all, or more pointedly a DOPE. Donald Trump was self-made with Daddy's money and help, period.
For all the hyperbole of the people around Trump, hired to baby sit the infant President, McMaster, Mattis, Congressional GOP Leaders and especially John Kelly, they can't be viewed as anything other than enablers to the most incompetent man to ever sit in the Oval Office.
You don't just sit there and ignore an ignorant, incompetent, unstable and a obviously unfit man in office by some misguided sense of duty; your foremost duty is to the country, the constitution and not the man.
Trump is a National Disgrace.
30
Someone please tell me: is there any point at which journalists and news editors cease to treat the utterings, tweets, etc. of political....personalities as major, let alone minor, new "stories" once it has become utterly clear that the subjects are cranks and crackpots? Perhaps some of this stuff is legitimate news on some level, but I get the feeling that virtually no one is doing much thinking before publishing this sort of stuff. Who is being served here? To whose benefit is it to splash every Trump tweet, counter tweet, and statement from people who may have some official position (Lord knows how), but who are otherwise virtual certified kooks, whether it be Bannon, Miller, Huckabee, etc.? Does this genuinely benefit the readership, the general public, public discourse, or the fools who continue to engage in these childish games?
4
It would be a serious mistake for journalists to ignore Trump's twitter rants. They give us real insight into the president. We may not like what we see and hear but pretending this is a normal man and waiting for him to be "presidential," ie a man of judgement and knowledge beyond how to use his remote and twitter feed is like waiting for hell to freeze over.
1
You have a point there, and I agree in part. But automatically turning every crazy tweet into a blaring, major instant headline is exactly what Trump wants. But could there some other way to report and present what he says (as opposed to what he does) in a more thoughtful, measured way? Must we all hyperventilate together every time he rants? That's playing his game, and it's beneath the level of national discourse that we must have. Cannot wise journalism engage in these "stories" in a way that furthers and contributes to, rather than continues to damage, that discourse?
It dawned on Bannon that without Trump, he's nobody --- as he should be. I with the press wold stop giving him free publicity. We are stuck with or incompetent and embarrassing president because the press reported his every inane utterance. Now they are doing the same with Bannon. ENOUGH!
2
Trump had 3 bankrupt bank loans. He paid zero back. No USA bank will touch him. Foreign banks are for now. Kushners dad was in prison for white collar crime. His ex son in law gave evidence convicting him. Then kushners dad hired a prostitute and made a video of her and the son in law. Then mailing it to his own daughter to destroy their marriage. Lovely family values. Now Trump is personally placing NY state attorneys in Jareds and his own jurisdiction. I wonder if Jared will ultimately give evidence to convict Trump ultimately destroying their marriage too. Jared and Ivanka were unethical to insert themselves in this administration. They made a mistake in going to Washington. Donald Trump Jr made the same mistake. The Fire and the Fury is right that these people are self absorbed and are not public servants but all in it for themselves. Trump can not pardon himself or his family from state felonies for money laundering and tax evasion.
13
Take away the oxygen and no flame can exist. It is that simple.
Perhaps the press can now use the same tactic in dealing with this administration\President and deal with some truth as well.
2
Imagine what the threats were coming from trump if Bannon had not agreed to do this. And I'm sure Bannon was well aware of how vicious trump can be when he is angry.
2
Brannon’s loyalty is to the agenda which he crafted and not to Trump. Trump is just a tool to help make the agenda happen.
2
Much ado about nothing. Trump and Bannon will reconnect as 2018 midterms near and McConnell seeks to assert himself beyond the Beltway. The Republican Party will devour itself, and it can not come soon enough.
3
Bannon and Trump are the most deceptive duo in American political life today, and perhaps ever. Both say one thing one day and completely reverse what they said the next. Should Americans allow scheming liars like Trump and Bannon to influence American policy? Both men are very dangerous and Americans from all parts of the political spectrum should beware of such people because their evil self-serving behavior may cause doom and destruction on everyone in this country. They may both be entertaining, but practical jokers may be thought entertaining until one of their jokes causes someone serious injury.
5
"president" trump is a disorganized, chaotic, dangerous mess. That much is no longer up for debate.
5
Trump was right to fear naming his oldest son after himself in fear that he'd turn out to be a loser. His prophesy was bang on. Junior isn't even good at being bad.
Bannon must be kicking himself that he's brought himself so much grief by being honest about that oily little wanna-be Don Jr. Trump himself prefers his vapid daughter and her devious attachment to Junior by a mile, and would personally toss the (40-year-old) kid to the wolves to save his own fortune.
2
As it has always been...the real 'side show' is trump himself.
Take away the oxygen and no flame can exist. It is that simple.
Perhaps the press can now use the same tactic in dealing with this administration\President and deal with some truth as well.
Stephen Miller is an apprentice Roy Cohn without the law degree -- one of the worst fringe debits accompanying The Donald.
3
Since this horror of a man has been out to ruin our country from Day one, I don't feel sorry for him in any way. There have been nothing but misjudgments and glaring errors from this supposed pundit and his manipulated con man puppet. His utter ruination is what most of us who voted have been praying and hoping for. I take no pleasure in wishing anyone ill, but I refuse to support or defend a man so racist, misogynistic, hateful and delusional. America will be well rid of him and his hate-spewing compatriots.
3
The carefully crafted public image aside like his ex-boss Trump, Bannon too is ultimately a man with feet of clay unable to stand firm for long.
3
Bet ya Bannon and Trump are back to BFF's in couple weeks or so, now that Bannon is kissing the ring. But just one question: is Ivanka still dumb as a brick, or was that Manafort too?
20
Careful you don't want to feed them all the info they are missing by spoon. You do realize they are smart enough or at least some are to read the criticism and use it to find ways to counter the facts without ever becoming honest.
So in addition to being a pernicious blowhard Bannon is also a lily-livered coward.
49
Next: Steve Miller. Same stoopid rhetoric, same hatred, same ugly. Out, damned spot.
9
Trump has betrayed his 'loyal base' repeatedly: Health Care direct, individual, pre-existing, cheap and easy? (see it there under the wheels of the bus?) Tax Breaks for the middle class? In your dreams Joe the Plumber. This was a gala for the 1.% of the .1% créme de la billionaire. Wall that Mexico Paid For!! $80B Mr. Coalminer Please - add that to Trump's $1.5T deficit tab. Rebuild the Infrastructure!! Booring!! Won't work anyway. Build a wall for foto-oops or is that photo ops, instead?
Now about that Trump base which has hovered at around 33% of the insolvent and thick headed populace. At least 5% of its 'hard core' has been directly attributable to Bannon's personal alt.boys and gals. If that fades into mortal shame and Trump fades to the low 20%s what profitith a white Republican Man from associating with an obvious traitor and flim-flam after he's already paid out the 'big jackpot' and the waiter is headed over to the table with the 5 megaton bill for the table?
Trump can send out Stephen Miller, angry fetus, all he wants. But, without Stephen Bannon's 5% bot-army of Drudge type alt.righters, the impact in the primary threat starts to ring hollow.
14
Now about those 'tapes' of the meetings with Russia up in the Tower . . . https://twitter.com/NycBmd
NYFD called to put out fire in Trump Tower Penthouse.
Did Trump say it was "OK" for Stephen Miller to spend the night there? Just wondering.
1
It is obvious that Donald J. Trump is totally incapacitated. He needs to be removed from office yesterday. The US Republican House of Representatives do not want to admit this. I am not sure why. Actually I think the US Republican House of Representatives capacity to think are also incapacitated. Maybe the US Republican House of Representatives also should removed themselves from office.
8
The US Republican representatives and senators are happy to keep him a while lnger because, as Mitch McConnell already stated, Trump will sign any bill the GOP puts in front of him. They will try to keep passing one-sided, non-debated, pushed through legislation that suits their pocketbooks and the pocketbooks of their billionaire and corporate donors until he's removed from office.
Guess that money CAN buy anything!
3
Why do we cover and even give guys like L Graham a voice by quoting him as part of the Repub circus? Where are the Dems? Can we please have the Dem response or what they are planning on any of this? I am sick of hearing from these smarmy out right lying Repubs. And by the way, VOTE.
8
I think the Dems are allowing Trump and the GOP to destroy themselves.
The plan is obviously working.
From day one, the Trump crew has embarked on a really, really horrid reality TV show. Only in this administration would low-lifes like Stephen Miller hold what were once responsible positions on the White House.
9
Bannon seems like a character from a movie or made-for-cable TV series. Is the series really about the Trump character? Or the Bannon character? In tonight's episode, our insider/outsider, kinda-sorta racist and nationalist slob character has been cast off by his shadowy, evil, wealthy benefactors and publicly attacked by the Frankenstein's monster he helped to create. Backed into a corner, he begins to grovel, backtrack and beg for forgiveness. Is this the end of his character arc, or will he slink off into the darkness only to return in a new and more malevolent form later on?
12
"Always, after a defeat and a respite, the shadow takes another shape and grows again." —J. R. R. Tolkien
2
@Nb--You're absolutely correct: The Right IS filled with cowards. Consider their MO, for starters, which can be summed up as, "What do you have to lose? (Famous DJT campaign slogan) Everything!" It's entirely fear-based, and that pandering is what got DJT elected and keeps his approval rating in the mid-30s percentage. Reason has no bearing with these people. Exhibit A would be Stephen Miller's interview with Jake Tapper.
5
Bannon only apologized because his groupies were turning away from him. Although our-called president would never apologize for anything, he and Bannon are cut from the same self-serving, heartless cloth.
4
This is a dopey move by Mr. Bannon. Doesn't he know Trump will probably forget he ever said of any this stuff in another few days? I give it a week before Trump starts asking his staff if there's any way to bring good ol' Steve back into the White House.
3
If the Republicans hadn't passed "tax reform," I wonder if the Mercers might have sided with Bannon, instead.
7
Clearly the book was in the works prior to the Moore implosion, he would have looked like a political savant had he pulled off the electoral victory, with a candidate that Trump disliked. Now, having be made to look the fool, he needs to crawl back to the good graces of the President. Only way forward is to denounce himself and grovel for forgiveness. This one however, is personal, and if we know anything about Trump it's he never forgets any attack on family. Bannon will now fade into the wilderness from which there is no redemption.
2
Never in my life have I seen such a menagerie, Trump, Bannon, Miller. Each one is stranger than the other.
13
Sad to see a man grovel. Another member of the 'yeah I said that but I didn't mean it' club.
2
Another example that, in the end, all this little tough guys are just cowards at heart. They are like a bunch of scared, pathetic little boys trying to out-dare each other, until one of them finally breaks down and cries. This is also why they are all such bullies. Punching downwards is so much safer than taking on those who might punch a bit harder.
7
Nothing will chance until pain becomes greater then greed. GOP's scale will hopefully reach 10 in November 2018.
1
This is just the MOST interesting political free-for-all. It is Shakespearean. I sincerely doubt that Republican Congressmen have any fear of the Trump machine at this point. But will they be able to distance themselves from Trump enough to win in November? Will they support Trump's agenda this year? If they do, will they be seen as unpatriotic by voters? What will happen with the Meuller investigation?
2
Bannon is being under estimated by the R's and Trump supporters if he decides to changes his tactics. I believe that he would much press and interviews if he decided to criticize the " Trump Family Tax Avoidance Plan" by laying out what he proposed to Trump - Higher taxes on the wealthy and much lower taxes on lower income Americans.
He has other cards to play and could be a spoiler - but that's probably more hope than reality but one never knows.
Sure he is backing away. This self-styled "populist" a "man of the forgotten people" lost his cushy 68K a month from his financial backers, the Mercer Family. No longer able to ensure he will live in the lifestyle of the rich and famous, Faux philosopher and self-serving Bannon needs to find a source of money to keep him rich and relevant.
Not sure if saying never mind and I'm sorry will bring the bucks flowing back his way but Bannon has exposed himself for being the fraudulent huckster he always was. That he hurt so many with his disruptive and divisive "policies" while in the Oval Office will never be part of his regrets. He just wants to keep on spreading the hate with big money for himself.
Given the moral abyss that is DC and the Trump/GOP it is anyone's bet as to what will happen to Bannon. He may yet rise again with Trump and Mercer forgiveness depending upon how much these craven manipulators decide to use each other again to further their perverted agenda to turn America back towards inequality and injustice.
An absolutely pathetic state of affairs that we the people do not need or want.
3
Bannon and Trump are both good at manipulating people, and the Republican Party has employed them both very effectively to achieve it's goals. This little flap means nothing. As long as he proves useful to the wealthy, Bannon isn't going away, neither is Trump, and Wolff's book isn't going to do anything except make Wolff some money. It doesn't make a meeting any more, or less, treasonous to have Steve Bannon offer his opinion. We know it was treasonous, the issue is that nobody dares do anything about it. Bannon backs away because he lacks the courage to follow through, just like the rest of them, and seeing the Mercers cut off Bannon's trust fund will remind them all of what is at stake.
3
George Carlin said it best - "Anyone in this country can be President of the United States. That is the problem."
10
What entertainment! Makes the Golden Globes and House of Cards look boring. What we have is a modern day spin off of "Game of Thrones". As to Bannon's "et tu brute" moment, it looks like a cert to set off intrigue and carnage in season two of the spinoff. Meanwhile, the Republicans on the Hill, do nothing and say nothing as their House, the Republican Party burns down!
3
Well, this certainly clears matter up. Thanks. BTW, Miller continues a frightening automaton.
I understand that trump will have his first medical exam by a qualified doctor on January 12th. Please let it include a mental exam as well, and please release all the gory details, so that the entire world knows that whatever Bannon said and was revealed in Fire and Fury was totally accurate. No amount of backtracking by Bannon is going to erase what has already been revealed. The world already knows trump for what he is, perhaps a mental assessment would pull the wool FROM the eyes of his supporters.
3
Mr. Bannon speaks from both sides of his mouth. Nothing he said, including anything quoted in Mr. Wolff's book, can be taken seriously.
2
I keep wondering, what is it with these guys, drinking the Trump kool-aid? Especially Miller. Now Bannon, seriously backpedaling? They have no principles, no actual values or beliefs, clearly. It must be the money.
1
Ahh, Mr. Graham the ultimate patriot thinks we should all want Trump tp be successful. Funny, he was a total obstructionist when Barack Obama was the President; indeed, we heard not a whimper from the swarmy Mr. Graham when Trump played the birther card. Note to Graham: 3 million more of us voted for someone other than Trump in 2016—we do not want him to gut the ACA, deport the Dreamers, destroy our pristine lands and waters, prosecute his political enemies, build a useless and expensive wall at the Mexican border, trample on the First Amendment, or any of the other crazy schemes he wants to promote. We are the Resistance and we will not stand by and cheer while he wrecks our Nation with your enthusiastic support.
11
The Republican Party is like the Peloton in a tour race....relentlessly it tracks down the breakaway riders. The trump and Bannon breakaway lead is evaporating. The Peloton has just caught and consumed Bannon. The "president" is in its sight and when caught all sense of "Populism" will vanish.
1
As the Worm Turns...
Before I deride the soap opera that seems to have enveloped the White House, and the entire elected government, I have to check myself and realize that it now has apparently become a prerequisite for higher office to have been a television impresario. "Oprah Winfrey for President?" Really? Well, since the Democrats have absolutely no original thought or initiative these days, they might as well allow themselves to be pushed into that losing absurdity.
5
You're missing the point to suit your own narrative. When people listen to the wisdom and thoughtfulness that Oprah exudes and realize the personal experience from which that comes, they recognize the stark contrast with the predatory clown show in the White House. Their "Oprah for President" is calling this out. Any of us who have listened and learned from Oprah over the years know that could step into that role and, though she doesn't want the job and feels there are better ways for her to serve her fellow humans, she'd figure it out and handle it with wisdom, diplomacy, and care for all Americans and all people around the world. What you hear in the "Oprah for President" cries is that yearning for a real leader who is intelligent, a constant learner, has had to work for everything she has and realizes that her calling is to give it back in service to others.
3
Shouldn't there be another paragraph?
That's all well and good, but the fact that Oprah fills that void is part of the dilemma. Whether she does it well is irrelevant. The point is that in order to turn this tragic ship around, like it or not the Democrats are going to have to a) win an election, and b) lead persuasively after that. They will need to bring forth a candidate who can do both (unlike last time, when they reflexively burped up a divisive candidate who could do neither). That will require someone with both political charisma and some experience in governance and political persuasion. In my opinion, Oprah comes nowhere near qualifying.
he'd make a great Brutus
6
I'm so sick of it all.
I couldn't even watch the entire Miller-Tapper interview. Even Miller's body language (the way he talks with his eyes half-closed, and lips that constantly seem to prefer to stick together) expresses a deep-seated hatred for everything that is or thinks or feels differently than he does. As if he has been bullied his entire life, and is motivated by one single purpose: now that his side won, using his power to show disdain and contempt for everybody else, "period". I've never seen someone as shut down, psychologically, as he is.
And being tone-deaf and living in an alternative reality is exactly what describes this entire administration.
What "genius" would ever call himself a genius, unless he's having no professional success at all and slowly dying away in one or the other hole, crying with despair that the world is unfair because he IS, after all, a genius ... ?
What a totally surreal situation to read things like these from the mouth of the most powerful leader of the most powerful nation on earth ... surreal or creepy, I still don't know which of both words characterizes his "stable genius" tweet best.
And then there's Bannon, whom Trump's followers are now taught to deeply hate too, because he dared to admit that at least on one issue (the Russia meeting) Trump simply accepted a stupid, ignorant idea proposed by political novices (= his aides and family) because of a criminal (Manafort) who knew what he was doing.
Dis-gus-ting.
161
Trump's present rat-pack is evidently just an evolutionary product of Trump's formative experiences as a rich barracks brat in a reformatory military academy.
Funny how Miller and Trump both call the entire book "fiction" but obviously believed Wolff's Bannon quotes, judging by Trump's outraged reaction against Bannon, not Wolff.
59
And Bannon didn't deny he made the comments, which tells me Wolff must have documented them well enough that Bannon knows he cannot deny. Maybe not such fictional reporting after all...
This is exactly what worries me the most about all these guys, and especially about Trump.
It's not that they think they're smarter and more knowledgeable than anybody else. That's laughable.
It's not that they lie so much: that's not so hard to see through, once you get it through your head that they're ALL lying pretty much ALL the time.
It's not even that they're wanna-be bullies: that, you can always punch in the snoot.
But the cowardice, the folding at any pressure: that means the Prez, and his advisors, and a lot of Congress, won't stand up for the Constitution and for the country.
417
Did nobody notice how Bannon proclaimed he was ready st "stand in the breech" to protect Trump?
The use of breech instead of breach is the vindication of Sigmund Freud.
4
If the book is factual, then POTUS seems to have little idea what's in the Constitution.
3
The failure of this Congress, as well as the President and Executive Branch, to uphold the U.S. Constitution, as they swore to do in taking their oath(s) of office, is the absolutely worst insult to the People of the United States, as well as the largest threat to the continuation of our democracy as a vital, respected government (in my opinion, as a lawyer, professor, and citizen of this country).
To have a Supreme Court that claims, on the one hand, to be following the "intent" of the Founders, but which ignores, on the other hand, the clearly expressed intent of those Founders that the Constitution be written in a purposefully vague manner -- as a flexible document, adaptable for the future and its development -- makes me furious. The disingenuous reading of only the disparate bits of historical record with which these privileged jurists agree is NOT the fine legal scholarship that one expects of our Supreme Court, but we are stuck with it, and with them.
There is only a little humor to be had from a variation on a favorite lawyer joke:
Q. How do you know when a Trump official is lying?
A. His/her lips move.
I'll note that this doesn't seem to apply to #45, though. His lips don't seem to move when he talks anyway - too much "work," perhaps?
2
I think the thing that is scariest about that Stephen Miller song-and-dance with Jake Tapper is that Stephen Miller isn't just a spin doctor.
Worm Tongue Miller is in charge of formulating ALL WHITE HOUSE POLICY!
Terrifying!
64
We are paying that ghoul to lie to us and devise ways to hurt us.
No thanks. Those are the kind of kinks that seem more appropriate for a Stable Genius in the company of Russian ladies of the evening.
5
Bannon could have expected this. People who manifest narcissistic traits will often respond with rage when merely slighted. Trump appears more destabilized in recent months, but he's far from an easy target. Bannon could have expected that an attack on Trump, and especially a criticism of his children, would result in all out retaliation intended to crush him out of existence. To that end, any and all minions of power would be leveraged. In some fashion, the book likely does a service to America. Bannon seems fond of coats that express rugged individualism. Now he'll have to live that persona.
15
Trump's not the person putting the hurt on Bannon -- the Mercer family is. They're threatening to defund Bannon, and without them, he probably can't afford to live within subway range of the White House.
3
As we continue this diatribe in The Bizzaro World, better known as Trumpism, reality and the spoken word can no longer be counted on to mean anything.
In this universe, no action, no utterance of a phrase can be looked upon as having occurred. All we are left with are the spoils - ill gotten gains, either a nominated and subsequently affirmed Supreme Court justice, or a hastily written, misguided and punitive tax policy. If the "truth" is elusive in the present, how will the history be written?
4
Bannon's efforts to redeem himself in the eyes of Trump and Company are just pathetic. But I say let him blather on. It's good late night comedy material.
9
c'mon Steve. did Brutus walk it back? heck, no! he doubled down!
8
I note that Trump has requested to see the new movie about the Ringling Brothers Circus, "The Greatest Show on Earth". Perfect for him with PT Barnum's dictum "you can fool some of the people all of the time." Bannon and Trump have proved the adage for the 38% of our fellow Americans
6
That's why I call Trump "DT Barnum." He's a modern day carnival barker and/or snake oil salesman.
No surprise that Bannon main interests are not in really changing anything but rather simply having power and making money (sounds a lot like you know who).
What we've also found out is, perhaps not also surprisingly, that he is a coward.
And if he was talking about Manafort regarding that treason thing and the Trump family members met with Russian representatives at his instigation, it would stiil be like finding out that during WWII J. Robert Oppenheimer knowingly met with representatives of Stalin at the behest of the atomic bomb spies and discussed the secrets of the bomb with them.
3
What they only briefly mention in the article is the fact that the Mercers, and possibly others, have pulled their funding for Breitbart over this. I would like to see the Times and WaPost cover THEM more, since they're obviously the money behind the throne. THAT'S what's the most scary.
4
C'mon, Stev-arino!! We're counting on you to do a knock-down, drag-out with this pathological liar!! I thought you'd never back down from a good fight, much less your freedom of speech.
Who knew???
12
Bannon rolls over and exposes his belly to the pack alpha. What a surprise.
Steve, you're toast. You know that, don't you?
48
Your fifteen minutes are up, Steve. Exit stage right.
15
Irrational, fanatic, Fascists, eating themselves. Pass the popcorn.
23
I so want this movie to never end
You’ve got no one now, Bannon. Smooth.
6
It sounds as if Bannon is trying to protect his Breitbart turf.
7
You don't know whether to laugh or cry about this.
I think the NYTimes and other media outlets should do what CNN did to the Trump speech writer, tell them if they don't stop acting like 5 yrs old idiots, they will be banned from the media.
That is the least they can do.
21
Although Bannon tried to take back his "treason" comments, he didn't take back his "nut-cracking" comment about Don Jr. and TV. I would have thought that the two comments go hand-in-glove.
8
These sycophants have no shame. Its as simple as that.
16
Some has been issues are not important as soon as they are not an issue anymore and this story is one of them. Why doesn't N.Y. Times come out with story on the real reason Iran captured the American embassy in Iran back on Nov. 4, 1979? Was it because former CIA Director William Colby appeared on the Ruff House T.V. program aired Oct. 29, 1979 and said Iran could soon have a new government, a military leader could be coming to power and the new government would be friendly toward Israel. The message from Colby was conveyed to the former Embassy of Iran in Washington and now U.S. isolated from for over 36 years Will this be 100 year+ isolation for U.S. from Iran? Give us important and informative news stories.
2
Groveling 101...Banmon, Graham, McConnell, Ryan, etc...
.
14
So now Donald Trump Jr. can't tell the difference between a traitor and campaign manager. And all Steve Bannon can do in a house of traitors and dupes is talk to an author about how smart he is. In the meantime in talking about his support of Roy Moore, brave, decisive, never back down Donald J. as opposed to Donald Jr. says that it was Steve who made him do it.
5
In summary we went from having a dangerous neofascist top adviser (Bannon) to a less educaded and more virulent neofascist speech writer and adviser (Miller).
Neither should have ever been given the time of day by a sitting president. White nationalism, racism and personal aggrandisement is the glue that binds Miller and Bannon. Combined with the Mercers money and Cambridge Analytica that is a dangerous mixture.
55
Miller appears to be mentally ill.
An exemplar for overplaying your hand---which was in the cards for Mr. Bannon. Winning the Whitehouse and then becoming Trump's whisperer went straight to his head. When he left the Oval Office he fashioned himself the Bruce Springsteen of political wisdom and expertise---he just loved standing in front of the microphone singing born in Alabama. Now, he knows how Custer felt when he reached the top of the little bighorn with 200 followers and thousands upon thousands of enemies ready to takes his scalp.
19
Trumps lovers, er sorry, supporters just don't get it... they are completely disposable to him, just like everybody and everything else in the known universe.
40
Bannon said that DJT Lr's actions were treasonous, but now says he's a patriot. So now Junior is a treasonous patriot. How could anyone think Bannon is out of touch with reality?
13
Just when I could finally agree with one thing Bannon said, he wimped out. His comments about Don Jr's meeting with the Russians being treasonous and unpatriotic were spot on. How is it not treasonous to meet with another government to undermine your own? How is it not treasonous for Jared Kushner to attempt to set up secret back channel communications to Russia that could not be intercepted by the NSA? Let's call it what it is, and prosecute accordingly.
403
He had a good teacher.....trump, himself.
Much as I disapprove of his nihilistic agenda, I believe Bannon's quotes in the Wolff book more than the array of liars -- Miller, Sanders et al -- who have taken to the air to defend Trump and his family. And the only reason Bannon is now displaying penitence is because he's lost his cash cow, the Mercers.
46
The funny thing about Darth Bannon's attempt to direct the shadow of Treason from Donnie Jr to Manafort is that the so-called president has repeatedly defended Manafort as the subject of a hit job who did nothing wrong while working for him.
No matter how you slice it, when people as high up as Trump's "chief strategist --
who was so favored that he was controversially given that extraordinary seat on the National Security Council --
are saying there was "treasonous" activity among members of the Trump Cartel,
then what is the American public supposed to think?!
I know what I think:
"Godspeed, Mr. Mueller! Keep following that money."
28
Why is this constant ridiculous and childish drama even front page news? Who cares. The comments are not "explosive". The entire thing is a joke. Please stop trying to act like any of this is normal and print actual news. The constant garbage from this administration is mind-numbing. It's a circus and pretending it's important is participating in the daily soap opera. I don't care about these sick people. Let's hear about people who are making a real difference in the world, about science, the environment, the massive species extinctions and what we can do about it on the ground, let's hear about people who matter, people with talent, anything but this please.
6
Trump matters. He's not your crazy uncle nobody listens to anymore. The president of the United States is a joke. That's not a joke, but a serious crisis.
4
You don't consider treason to be front page news?
4
Well now, of course. We all know Trump and his family and aides committed treasonous acts. There is no doubt for any of us. However, they won't be indicted. The House and Senate, the Justice department, the FBI are all silent. Let me remind you that if this had been Obama or Clinton, there would be outrage and impeachment by now. The fact that we have to wait to vote enough Democrats in for there to be an impeachment discussion should be of deep concern. And yes, it is a very serious crisis for all of us and once again, there is silence. The 25th Amendment should be invoked but it won't be. That is because the people who are meant to represent the people of the United States of America no longer do. The business takeover of our governing body is complete and now they represent big business and not the people. And as long as we have a complacent, ignorant, uneducated, overly religious constituency in certain areas of our country, we cannot undo this disaster unfolding on all fronts from environmental concerns to foreign diplomacy or lack of it to all the rules and laws put in place to protect people that have been removed and on and on. Treason is front page news and I look forward to the day it is on the front page in a meaningful way but I am tired of the constant barrage of temper trantrums masquerading as news. The NYTimes doesn't need to feed the drama beast to sell more copy. This isn't a tabloid rag.
Bannon and I have one thing in common. We believe Trump is a traitor. I considered him a traitor the moment he called on Russia to steal and sell off Clinton emails to WikiLeaks. Turns out his request wasn't some idle boast now that we know about the Kushner meeting with Russia that preceded Trump's request for Russian help. There's a nest of rats in the White House, and the sooner people wake up to the traitor who will sell out our great nation feather his nest, the better.
32
"There's a nest of rats in the White House..."
Just to be clear, I believe it's now known as a 'stable' of rats.
Whoops!
So Bannon not denying he told the truth for once about the traitorous Trumps must mean that it was captured on tape?
James 3:5 - “So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire!”
Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy....
5
Ah well, this toothpaste is out of the tube. I would also note that it really is "Consensual", for an ever shrinking group of sycophants . Give it a bit of time and we'll see a hashtag that makes @metoo look small.
The big question is what has happened to the morals in the GOP?
14
I actually think that probably Lindsay Graham is the worst of the bunch. Remember when he said "Elections have consequences"? What a spineless Chameleon he is.
4
The word went out from the White House:
Have Mercer on him.
6
Bannon is like Trump.They speak without thinking and believe they can simply change their story anytime.Anyone that believes them is dumb
8
This is the real Steve Bannon. He has no honor, integrity or dignity.
10
Bannon's Breitbart just deployed Delingpole again, one of the most incompetent climate change deniers out there, in order to back up Trump's lies about the unusually cold winter and make its readers believe that somehow, non scientists like Delingpole and Trump certainly know climate science better than 97% of the world's climate scientists.
His website constantly tries to distort people's image of Muslims and immigrants by focusing solely on crimes perpetrated by some of them.
And the list of deliberately concocted lies goes on and on.
So how come that such a professional liar all of a sudden starts speaking the truth ... ?
For the same reason why he's lying: contrary to Trump, Ryan and the GOPe, Bannon isn't lying in order to keep his own job. He's one of the last real (aspiring) ideologues among conservatives in this country, believing that he HAS to lie in order to obtain a better world (= one he knows but other people are too stupid to understand, hence the necessity of lying).
So why didn't he lie about those Russia meetings too? Because he knows Trump will betray his voters on a key issue for him: the wall. So he tries to create some independence from Trump through criticizing him, in order to be able to rally the troops when Trump fails to do so.
He just made one error: you cannot first tell your sheep that there was no collusion for an entire year, and then say the opposite. The only place for Bannon to create an independent voice, was on immigration ...
2
That Bannon would back away like may qualify as a cowardly act, but it also helps explain why no Republican is willing to stand up to Trump at this point. All of them are scared to death that they would become irrelevant once major donors pull back their support. And this is the real tragedy here -- the realization how far this country has gone along the path to plutocracy.
10
Bannon's brief flirtation with telling the truth ended quickly and badly.
He won't be doing that again.
18
I have the Miller interview on my DVR and watched it several times.
I still haven’t found the part where Miller destroyed Tapper. Not sure what our like, really smart President saw in that interview but the tweet was a failed spin attempt, the interview was a highly embarrassing moment for Trump yesterday.
It’s astonishing that Bannon is now being portrayed as a coffee boy. A coffee boy who served on Trump’s National Security Council. And Miller barely knew Bannon. Ha!
10
i think Trump is right. Bannon has lost his mind.
who wouldn't after spending almost two years with him.
3
With the 30%+ who supports Trump under any circumstances, I wonder if the approval ratings of Daivd Koresh or Charlie Manson prior to their ends would be 38.8% plus if they ran for President. I pray that Trump muddles bye and is defeated democratically.
5
The Whitehouse defense of Trump is the usual sound and fury, signifying nothing. The book is "fake", "fiction" in what way? The inmates are on tape (presumably) uttering their words. Do they deny saying them now? If Bannon didn't say what he said, then why give him the death sentence? Doing that means they believe the book! Not that they really care. It keeps the news media occupied, but we already knew that they knew Trump was nuts. And we know that they have simply adjusted to work around a lot of his crazy ways. We have learned once again that the hearts and minds of the GOP aren't changed. Everything's going their way. Hilary thought that Trump-shaming would easily lead to success. Are the Dems ready for 2018? Are they developing the candidates they promised us? Where are they? Forget Trump long enough to fix your own ticket and get the vote out. And generate some non-Trump publicity.
4
I despise Bannon, but I think that "Fire and Fury" is going to cause some Americans to take notice and ask some questions about the administration that they have helped to put in the White House. Nothing that I have read about this book or from it surprises me. Chaos reigns along with incompetence, bias, hatred, racism, greed and lust for power in DC. A majority of Americans see this administration for what it is--and glaringly what it isn't. Trump needs to go along with most of the Congressional GOP. Getting them out of power will require some mighty #resistance.
8
It seems likely that Bannon's assessment of the Trump family behavior as treasonous will ultimately be confirmed by Mueller and Bannon thus vindicated. Why else would Trump be so upset? And when will he produce his tax returns?
8
This is the guy the reepubs are terrified of? This guy has Mitch McC and Paul R shaking in their boots? This is the guy who is fighting the "mother of all wars" against the establishment? I mean, just LOOK at this guy. If the Dems had any guts they could run every one of these ridiculous clowns out of town.
51
As the previous elections have proven: no, contrary to what certain progressives in this country seem to think, elections aren't about good looks, they are about voter turnout.
And frankly, IF you're a "good looks" voter, you clearly didn't have any reason to stay home rather than go voting for Hillary, compared to Trump ...
you completely missed my point. have a good day in Belgium.
@ bill (second comment)
Lots of progressives are asking for "younger" Dem candidates these days, so I thought your comment was referring to that kind of ideas.
If you weren't talking about how Bannon looks, but wanted to talk about "content": Bannon has simply been reinforcing most Fox News lies that conservatives already believed in for years now (about the state of the union, Obama, "libs", Muslims, immigrants, the climate etc.), through Breitbart News, and then Trump took over this kind of rhetoric, and that's it.
Once you have half of the country believing the lies you fabricated about the other half of the country (and the country in general), all that is needed to win elections is for the other side to stay home ... .
And we know that part of progressives indeed stayed home in Nov. 2016, simply because they didn't see anyone on the ballot corresponding to their idea of the "ideal candidate".
It's too easy to constantly blame Democrats for the decisions made by hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens, as you seem to be doing here.
The main reason why it won't be easy to get rid of the GOP in the years to come is precisely because everything will depend on breaking the fatalism and, as Alinsky called it, "political illiteracy" of part of the voters on the left. And that has nothing to do at all with how "stupid" the right has in the meanwhile become, unfortunately.
Bannon is/was the human equivalent of Occupy Wall Street in the US executive branch. You discredit him - with blowhard comments about the president's family - you discredit the entire movement and the Goldman Sachs Democrats and Republicans in the cabinet are safe.
1
Bannon, financed by hedge fund billionnaires the Mercers??! The Human equivalent of Occupy Wall Street? Good grief... Bannon and the US executive branch are the ones occupied BY Wall Street!
1
The NOT-hole gang:
NOT what I meant (Bannon's mea culpa)
NOT my tweet (Trump claims Dowd authored Flynn obstruction tweet)
NOT my voice (access Hollywood tape)
NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME!
24
Trump, his administration and Bannon are all toast. They can't even complete one year in office without appearing like flailing nicompoops.
23
I thought Bannon was the tough-talking, alt-rightist, determined to tear down the elite, anarchist, not afraid to speak truth to power guy? But, one hint that the power is angry and instead he's a milquetoast, sheepish, weak and begging to be let back in where it's warm. Some kind of revolutionary he turned out to be. Not afraid to put it out on social media, but a mouse in reality. What a loser.
60
It seems like the only one "cracked like an egg on national TV" was Bannon.
9
So far.
1
The old saying "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" might apply in this Bannon/Trump contest of which one is worse! Personally, I have always found both of them appalling and dangerous - but Bannon is no doubt more intelligent than Trump. And poor Lindsey Graham - his boot licking is pathetic.
31
Fun to watch the dysfunctional and hateful Trump/ultra- conservative family turn on itself. Was just a matter of time for this fringe group of ideologues, self-promoters and narcissists to implode.
16
Many on the right said Bannon was so smart, maybe even genius. Obvious now, he's not. Greedy yes, but smart, not on your life.
10
No surprise that M. Wolf was allowed into the WH either, and they (the administration) realize later that the outcome was not the most desirable.
They are all like, really smart. Except they don´t know what they´re doing. Or inconsistency is the new normal. The only language they understand is money in relation to themselves, not in relation to other people. Just like an illiterate, uneducated, poor individual who grew up on the street in any third world country. Add lies and childish behavior.
US media: Do not report on the upcoming "Fake News Award".
Please ignore!
Bizarre, more bizarre, most bizarre .._.k show.
8
Since Bannon's departure, new head minion Stephen Miller has been without doubt drafting Trump's early morning tweets. As repulsive as those tweets are for content, there is no way Trump has the presence of mind to compose sentences so free of grammar and spelling errors at 6AM. Cut and paste, pure and simple. Covfefe.
23
I agree... The Bigger Button tweet was more grammatically complex, and correct, than anything tweeted before. I am bigly suspicious that it was ghost written.
Squabbling among the obsequious sycophants.
That such a story is even front page news is dysfunction writ large.
The only accomplishment of the Trump administration is the biggest heist ever perpetrated against the American worker. Lock them all up!
14
Trump's incompetence is displayed daily and in plain sight. His henchmen cannot hide Trump's destruction of the ideal that the presidency works for the general public good or the power grab fight that the people around Trump are engaged in among themselves. This looks like the formation of a "puppet dictatorship", with those who want to run policy willing to prop up an incompetent leader as the window dressing that camouflages their real intent. A prime example is Lindsay Graham. Now close to the ear of the Puppet, he now works to prop up a clearly unqualified and corrupt presidency. Graham will most likely not have another opportunity to visit the Oval Office as much as he does today. For that bravado, he has chosen to provide cover to grave incompetence in office by lying on TV about the obvious truth witnessed in the public domain every day.
15
Trump declares "Fire and Fury" is a work of fiction. The he turns his fire and fury on Bannon for what cannot have said, since this is a work of fiction.
Am I missing something here?
47
Right! I'll echo this, and all should. If it's fiction why are you mad?
Bannon apologizing means he did say it! Has this been pointed out?
I guess as long as the average red state voter gets an extra couple of hundred bucks back in their wallet at tax time everyone is more than willing to look the other way...
2
Alas, the mind of such a genius can only be comprehended by someone equally geniusy.
2
Deny, deny, deny, obfuscate and downright lie are the foundations on which Trump and his loyal soldiers have built his administration. No one should be surprised that Bannon is walking back statements he made in his book or that Miller went into attack dog mode on CNN. We also see this behavior on a daily bases from Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
It's the total lack of decency, the snide comments and the constant anger that come from Bannon, Miller and yes Sanders that have decent Americans alarmed. They are just following the orders of Trump their leader. Oh, have you heard that excuse before?
11
Bannon didn't just walk back his comments. He groveled. Trump's henchmen were out in force defending Trump's brilliant intellect and Bannon's unimportance in the administration. Bannon is finished and hopefully after the mid-term elections, Trump will be too.
10
Stability? Unstable? Candidate DJT "I can shoot someone on 5th Avenue and my poll numbers will not go down". A confession of instability by the President himself.
6
For a work of "fiction" and "fantasy" the observations in the book certainly correlate well with what we see in the daily Trump Twitter feed.
12
Astute observation. His twitter feed confirms the suspicions that he is unfit and not capable, or able to understand the government or the office of the president. One does not need to read a book, fact or fiction, to understand that DJT is not a world leader, and he is, contrary to his opinion, a far cry from a "stable genius". Unless of course the word "stable" was used as a noun.
"The moving finger writes; and, having writ moves on....etc". Omar Khayyam
2
The people in the Trump Administration all seem to be vying for most despicable person of the year award. Trump and Bannon have been front runners but Stephen Miller has gained more ground with fewer performances. His DPR ( despicable performance rating) is even higher than Kellyanne Conway who broke records last year.
The Camp David meeting saw many of the top ten DPR leaders gain ground on the field. But most concede the contest to last year’s winner Donald Trump setting new standards of dispictability.
8
I viewed Steven Miller's interview with Jake Tapper on CNN. I was disgusted and appalled by Mr. Miller's inappropriate behavior. He appeared to be out of control, irrational. I only wish Mr. Tapper would have cut him off sooner. I encourage all news organizations to embrace a policy to refuse to interview or talk with Mr. Miller at any time. His behavior is so inappropriate. He has no business representing any U.S. government leader.
207
Miller is aping his boss; no more, no less.
4
So Sloppy Steve was replaced by Sinister Steve. Miller is not only evil looking, he is a frightening spokesperson in the WH. He always appears possessed by demon forces and ready to explode when interviewed. WH really should not let him out in public.
3
Oh, I don't know. Maybe he should be on the boob tube every few months so people can be reminded of that this emotionally damaged, angry person is part of Con Man Don's inner circle. But please, only every few months.
For how long must the world endure Trump?
It has already been the longest year.
25
Worry about your own country ! We are doing GREAT here in the US- 2018 is going to be amazing !
This president's deluded base of supporters is unaffected by words in books as they do not read books.
8
This administration is simultaneously telling us that everything in Wolff's book is "fiction" and "false", and destroying the career of its own former chief strategist because of what the book writes that that chief strategist said AND which until today he didn't deny.
How can you claim that what x writes is false and at the same time attack one of your own because of what x writes that he said ... ?
It all doesn't make any sense.
And of course, Bannon clearly still doesn't deny the very essence of what the book wrote about him, and that goes 100% against the line Breitbart has been defending from the very beginning: no collusion. He now admitted AND continues to admit what everybody who's not a "Trumpbot" knows: yes, those meetings in Trump tower with Russians and without any lawyers present were "unpatriotic" and "treasonous".
He merely added what even McConnell already said: they happened because of the political ignorance of Trump and his family/aides.
We don't have to believe that ignorance alone explains these facts, but who doesn't know by now that those meetings were a VERY bad idea ... ?
As Bannon is basically saying nothing new, why is Trump attacking him so viciously, and why are wealthy donors fleeing?
Because in a Trump GOP, the truth cannot be told. Those who determine what the "alternative facts" of the day will be (= basically the GOPe and its wealthy donors, Mercer included) will relentlessly destroy those who still want to think for themselves.
3
Stephen Miller looks like a used shoe salesman, which it would seem, makes him a perfect fit for this administration.
21
The whacky eviscerating the whacky in public... whom to believe??
10
The word eviscerating is only used properly when there is something real and tangible behind it including truth. In this case it was defending the emperor who has no clothes; thus is was myopic spin and nothing more.
Bannon is toast. Trump voters regard the Wolff book and Steve Bannon as no more than they would an annoying insect. As with so many other "bombshells" and revelations, Trump remains securely in power, unaffected by the noise. What truly matters is that he appointed a fine justice to the Supreme Court, his tax bill was passed, his cabinet is adhering to Trumpian policies, he has unravelled reams of Obama-era regulations, and he is appointing a cadre of conservative federal justices. So let the media, the Democrats, and the "Resist" crowd have their puerile pleasures. Trump is making a difference, and he has three more years to continue the crusade---and if you think he'll quit, or be impeached and tried, you are deluding yourself.
6
Fortunately, when the next election comes around and a President is actually elected by a majority of Americans, the majority of us and a real President, will repair the damage to working class American lives and our standing in the world.
3
As far as the "majority of Americans": it doesn't work that way. It is the majority of the electoral votes....as is clearly enumerated in the Constitution. If you don't like it, get an amendment passed. In the meantime, caterwauling is futile.
"once the bullet leaves the gun..." same for words spoken? this bannon banter is bizzaire. he doe not look well - no portrait hidden in the closet for him or djt. all shows: ugly, hateful, mean spirited, unhealthy creatures. both temper"mentally" unfit to be near or in oval office. ENOUGH
25
The Russians must control every Republican member of Congress. RNC emails? Russian campaign contributions? Blackmail?
As for the White House, the Republicans there like Stephen Miller, know firsthand quite a bit about “angry, vindictive person” whose “grotesque comments are so out of touch with reality.” They see it every day.
12
"The Russians must control every Republican member of Congress. RNC emails? Russian campaign contributions? Blackmail?"
Ha. Ha. Ha. Keep drinking the kool-aide.
The reason it took Bannon this long is he is trying to remember what Wolfe might have on tape. Wolfe has all the impetus needed right now to keep his book flying off the shelves, When interest starts to flag, my guess is the taped comments may be a boost.
8
This administration is a bloody wreck, starting with the Trumpster himself. And it's supported by a Republican Congress which doesn't know how to act as a co-equal branch of government. McConnell, Graham, and the other 49 senators are on a par with the Roman senate during the empire: just a bunch of yes men with their hands out. Next thing you know, Trump will be asking them to declare him a god. And they' ll do it.
Add Ryan and his cluster to the mess and the picture of ineptitude s complete.
"Exquisite leadership!" Indeed.
41
Are you tired of winning yet?
Very apt comparison.
Trump's entire reputation rests on the adulation of the sleaziest liars in the USA. There are no un-rotted apples in his barrel.
48
This country should be fed up with the likes of Trump, Bannon, Miller, Stone, etc. but they keep coming out of the woodwork like flies at a garbage dump. This is all a millenium real-life version of Being There with Trump in the role of Chance Gardner.
8
Except Chauncey was likable.
2
With his turnabout Bannon has revealed himself to be an opportunist and a weasel. (Apologies to weasels who's name has been maligned into a handy cliche).
10
There is also the alt right/neo nazi angle.
Bannon, even more despicable than Trump.
What an accomplishment!
2
The clearest message I received from this article is Trump's aides and allies are in awe of Trump. For example, Mr. Miller comments about the president on CNN "he called Mr. Trump a "political genius" who could rattle of complete paragraphs on the fly in response to news events and then deliver them "flawlessly" to a campaign audience." shows me that Miller views Trump as some sort of personal deity. Even Lindsey Graham is lapping at Trump's leg. Trump's ability to have people see him in this light is probably a major key to his success. (I do feel its necessary to stress that I am not inferring any equivalencies in their policies but an similarity in management style) Adolf Hitler had the same ability in that Hitler's aides were under the impression that Hitler was impervious to error making and was a genius in all things. Of course, the truth was Hitler made many critical mistakes in his war (and in many other areas) and was not a genius of anything except for his ability to make people think he was a genius.
5
True, but Trump is a "stable genius at that" by his own admission.
Ahh! We've exposed Bannon's Achilles heels, and they're the same as Trump's: Greed and adulation. He lost the Mercers and their billions as well as the Trumpista base for the same reason: speaking candidly and truthfully.
443
Agree, Glen. Candid Truth is the enemy in a Trumpian world. It is to be attacked, denied, and refuted. Blatant propaganda and outright lies are the currency, as, for example, Stephen Miller confirmed on Sunday.
4
“Oh please, please Mr. Trump, don’t cut me off and take away my funding and influence. I’ll be good, I won’t do it (tell the truth about you and your family) again, I promise!”
33
Remember when Dick Cheney shot his friend in the face on that hunting trip? These guys always have their guns drawn. So Self inflicted carnage is inevitable.
5
A lot of people are saying this is a Dick Cheney quote: "I was acting on the best intelligence available at the time, and even knowing what I know now, I'd still shoot Whittington in the face." These are the people we have in charge. Big tax cuts and trickle-down economics? Sure! Let's try it again.
As far as Bannon goes: He's done a 360, but I'm betting on a 1080 by 2020. He's just warming up.
And this is why the GOP-controlled Congress does not impeach Trump. It would be a very unpopular move in the opinion of the Republican base, the majority of which still approves of our Dunning Kruger president. I'm surprised that so many Dems don't get this. Yes, some people really ARE stupid. Yes, some people really ARE A-OK with a serial sexual assaulter in the White House. Yes, some people are short-sighted, delusional and greedy. No, they're not going to change. So, natch, they like Trump.
Making the assumption that people who vote for Trump and back him are really just like your well-educated, smart, liberal friends if they just get more information about how bad the GOP is for them is a big mistake. They are what they are. The Dems simply need to learn to play them the way the GOP does: like a fiddle.
Steve Bannon made a bet and lost. Mercer pulled her money. The GOP is siding with Trump. Get over it, Steve. That's what happens when you go to Vegas. Sometimes you lose. Can's work up much sympathy for anyone involved in this political sideshow. As for the book? Doesn't tell me anything about Trump I didn't already know. And all of it's bad.
23
So Bannon has absolutely proven the axiom, "Not all cowards are bullies, but all bullies are cowards". Watching him attempt to dig his way out is sickening.
29
Out government is a mess and our press is a mess.
If you, the NYT is going to use this opportunity to push its trade agenda (which it is actively doing), you're getting cancelled again.
See ya!
What is going on in Washington today is a travesty and the press is the only public element that's keeping them honest on a daily basis as they don't have to report to donors. The New York Times remains a beacon in the night, calling out the lunacy of the Trump Administration and the lemmings of the Republican led Congress on a daily basis. You will be the poorer for not benefiting from their investigations, research and knowledge.
7
Miller is positioning himself to conquer the Bannon Empire and take over that lucrative business after the last rat has left the sinking ship.
8
What a pathetic coward. Bannon claimed to be at war with the Republican establishment, then his one accurate assessment brings out the wrath of Trump and his backers, so "Sloppy Steve" eats his words. Some warrior!
11
@NM -- like a rabid dog, Bannon bit the hand that fed him. Now he wants to sit, give paw and roll over for a tummy rub. He's in the dog house for good.
2
The USA has become United Scams of America. The chickens have come home to roost. The world no longer believes the white lies. Fading like the fake Hollywood culture stick a fork in it, it is over.
2
Trump affiliates. A lesson on sissies, bullies, and liars. We and they know who they are. Nothing they can say or do can negate the harm they have done to this country.
Forget apologizing to each other! Time to apologize to our grandchildren. They have set the world upside down, and youth will have to pay the dire consequences.
14
Mr. Bannon tried to reverse his statements completely, calling Donald Trump Jr. “both a patriot and a good man.”
Hey, no biggie Steve, just so long as junior's still going to be 'cracked like an egg on national tv'.
8
So much winning. This is the sick and tired stage he told us about.
17
When are the American people going to demand the people we employ to work in the White House stop lying about the President? America isn't a monarchy. We don't elect Kings, we elect public servants.
7
Is that a typo?
Are you asking "When are the American people going to demand the people we employ in the White House stop lying, including the president?"
2
Everyone knows this President is unfit for office. The people we employ are lying to us claiming his mental illness is "fake news" when we all know it is true.
One look at this used car salesman, Steven Miller and you will see what the face of dishonesty and distrust looks like. The man comes across as a lying sack of garbage, arrogant, and very dislikeable. Yes, you can tell a book by it's cover, just look at him once and you'll see it. Dishonest and obnoxious just like his leader.
16
Thank you New York Times or sorry "fake news". I nearly bought the book save for this article. Now I would like to know what is factual in the book or it's just a scam?