[Beren]

Steve Bannon Steps Down From Breitbart Post

By JEREMY W. PETERSJAN. 9, 2018

WASHINGTON — Stephen K. Bannon is stepping down from his post as executive chairman of Breitbart News, the company announced Tuesday.

Mr. Bannon’s departure, which was forced by a onetime financial patron, Rebekah Mercer, comes as Mr. Bannon remained unable to quell the furor over remarks attributed to him in a new book in which he questions President Trump’s mental fitness and disparages his elder son, Donald Trump Jr.

Mr. Bannon and Breitbart will work together on a smooth transition, a statement from the company’s chief executive, Larry Solov, said.

In the statement, Mr. Bannon added that he was “proud of what the Breitbart team has accomplished in so short a period of time in building out a world-class news platform.”

Mr. Bannon’s departure from the website is the latest ignominious turn in a career that was once one of the most promising and improbable in modern American politics.

Though he was virtually unknown outside of his work at Breitbart, Mr. Bannon was named chief executive of the Trump campaign two and a half months before Election Day. And he helped instill the discipline and focus that allowed Mr. Trump to narrowly prevail in the three Midwestern states that gave him victory in the Electoral College.

He accompanied Mr. Trump to the White House and became his chief strategist. With an office in the West Wing and a direct line to the Oval Office — he reported to no one but the president initially — he seemed well positioned to wreak havoc on the political institutions and leaders he railed against as too corrupt and self-serving.

But after repeated clashing with Ivanka Trump, the president’s elder daughter, and Jared Kushner, her husband and Mr. Trump’s senior adviser, Mr. Bannon was pushed out after less than eight months with the administration.

No one has been more closely identified with the Breitbart website or had more to do with emboldening its defiant editorial spirit than Mr. Bannon did after its namesake, Andrew Breitbart, died of a heart attack in 2012. In Washington, Mr. Bannon works and lives part time in a townhouse nicknamed the Breitbart Embassy.

Once outside the administration and free to pursue his political enemies, Mr. Bannon set out on an audacious mission to challenge Republican incumbents he deemed insufficiently loyal to Mr. Trump’s agenda. He vowed to replace Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, and started backing far-right candidates, some with questionable backgrounds and losing track records at the polls.

His full-throated, unfailing support of Roy S. Moore in Alabama even after allegations surfaced that the former judge preyed on women as young as 14, ended in an embarrassing setback: Democrats took the Senate seat for the first time in a generation.

Now he knows how politics really is, I wonder if his agenda sinks with him.

[skinster]

[blackjack21]

Sloppy Steve... that's what happens when you take on Trump without thinking about what he can do to you. Bannon had a hell of a ride, but he got thrown off the bull and trampled. Well... I guess that's just how it goes.

[foxdemon]

Actually, I think sneaky Steve has made a cunning move.

He has successfully distanced himself from Trumpism, got himself a new benefactor (Miles Kwok) and looks set to become Mueller’s star witness, thus ingratiating himself with the national security establishment.

Trump is finished. It is just about the shouting now.

[colliric]

Ivanka is there helping her dad out(she's technically an unpaid advisor). Some of his attacks on her reek of a weird sense of Jealousy. Especially laying into her intelligence.

Trump played personal favourites with his daughter and his son-in-law over Bannon, but that's just part of being a good father. His daughter's personal politics are different, but that doesn't she didn't vote for the Republican Party in 2016 and vote for her dad and his related MAGA platform.

Shouldn't have insulted the family.

[foxdemon]

Ivanka is there helping her dad out(she's technically an unpaid advisor). Some of his attacks on her reek of a weird sense of Jealousy. Especially laying into her intelligence.

Trump played personal favourites with his daughter and his son-in-law over Bannon, but that's just part of being a good father. His daughter's personal politics are different, but that doesn't she didn't vote for the Republican Party in 2016 and vote for her dad and his related MAGA platform.

Shouldn't have insulted the family.

The one I feel sorry for is Melania. Ivanka and Kushnar and junior can’t be saved. It’s over. It can’t be helped, there is nothing that can be done about it. May as well get used to the idea of POTUS Pence. I think Trump will go down by the American summer. Once his finances are scrutinised by Mueller he will be finished.

[4cal]

Sloppy Steve... that's what happens when you take on Trump without thinking about what he can do to you. Bannon had a hell of a ride, but he got thrown off the bull and trampled. Well... I guess that's just how it goes.

"I hire the best people" Pervert Trump....then he supposedly fires the "best people" shortly after they're hired...

[colliric]

May as well get used to the idea of POTUS Pence.

In 2024 of cause....

Though personally I'm holding out for POTUS Palin..... First Woman President.

[colliric]

"I hire the best people" Pervert Trump....then he supposedly fires the "best people" shortly after they're hired...

He hires alot of people. That's how he gets the Best People... Along with a few bad apples...

That's how The Apprentice worked, lol.

[4cal]

He hires alot of people. That's how he gets the Best People... Along with a few bad apples...

That's how The Apprentice worked, lol.

What you're describing is pure craziness which is hand-in-glove with what the book describes...

He hires the best people by hiring a lot of them? If he hires the best people, all of the hires should be the "best". Instead, he's fired numerous persons well within a year and hasn't filled necessary positions such as the head of NASA.

Clearly whatever acumen he once had (if ever) is gone with most of his mind; just like the book alleges and like you have just confirmed.

[foxdemon]

In 2024 of cause....

Though personally I'm holding out for POTUS Palin..... First Woman President.

Palin might actually do OK as POTUS. She has experience in politics and will know to delegate. Mattis, Tillerson and Cohn would find life a lot easier with Palin behind the desk in the Oval Office.

Trump is too much of a businessman and tries to retain too much control himself. And his schemes and finances are too shady. And he plays his minions off against each other. He simply hasn’t got what it takes to be a statesman.

Anyway, it’s over now. Mueller is closing in for the kill. Trump can’t escape the noose. Well, not unless he started a war or tried to fire Mueller. I don’t the Senate or Congress would let him get away with that much power anymore.

[pugsville]

He hires alot of people. That's how he gets the Best People... Along with a few bad apples...

That's how The Apprentice worked, lol.

Bad judgement. No matter how he churns them over when your hiring poorly you're not going to improve personel.


It's repetitive. He says nice things about someone before, after it's nasty things. His opinion of someone ap[pears be solely how much use to them they are right now.

[Rugoz]

Bannon is a right-wing ideologue while Trump is a self-serving narcissistic billionaire currently occupying the WH. Obviously the Mercers were going to side with the latter.

[Beren]

Trump is finished. It is just about the shouting now.

I wonder if Trump is finished, but how is he anti-establishment any longer?

[Zagadka]

Not only is he hunted by Fake News, the Real News has had a rift. Dangerous precedent.

[foxdemon]

Bannon is a right-wing ideologue while Trump is a self-serving narcissistic billionaire currently occupying the WH. Obviously the Mercers were going to side with the latter.

http://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2126946/did-bannon-know-best-without-cooperation-clash-civilisations

Bannon is up to something. This from HK and then there was his meeting with Wang Qishan last year.

http://www.newsweek.com/china-cannon-secret-meeting-670040

And now we discover Miles Kwok is Bannon’s new benefactor.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jan/4/drudge-exposes-bannons-new-benefactor/

Bannon isn’t finished. He is definitely up to something. Expect more proverbial bomb throwing.

As to the Mercers, they don’t throw bombs so they will support Trump for now. They will try to creep back into the shadows as soon as they are able.

[colliric]

Not only is he hunted by Fake News, the Real News has had a rift. Dangerous precedent.

No they haven't...

It's business as usual for most of them.

Ben Shapiro is right, most of the right wing news services expected Bannon to crack one day because he was antagonistic with Trump's family. His views and goals were too extreme to the right and he was gonna clash with someone closer to Trump (happened to be mainly Ivanka Trump apparently, idiot was obviously jealous).

Trump has surrounded himself with family and friends personally in the Whitehouse. That's his inner circle. Pretty much done what most Presidents usually do, only because the stupid asshole antagonistic corporate-left press is trying to relive "the glory days of Nixon hating us and us succeeding hounding him and getting him ousted, while making a gajillion bucks from the controversy" we get the Press Secretary revolving door.... Who would want to hang out in a room with those cunts being in that "mode" at the moment? No-one. No wonder the last time the Press hounded the President like that, he put them out by the old swimming pool.

Spicer got booted from the Press Secretary Job because Melania thought he was doing shit defending Trump from the Press(look it up, she got his ass booted). He was doing the best he could, but anyone with eyes could see the pack basically picking on him like it was a kindergarten gangbullying reinactment. He was getting eaten alive.

Sanders talks to them like their kindergarteners and she's their teacher. To be honest with you that's the treatment they deserve. Glad it's working out finally.

[foxdemon]

@colliric read this:


http://www.theblaze.com/news/2018/01/03/commentary-steve-bannon-understands-the-truth-about-the-mueller-probe-and-the-media-still-dont

Commentary: Steve Bannon understands the truth about the Mueller probe, and the media still don’t
Jan 3, 2018 1:28 pm

http://www.theblaze.com/author/leon-wolf/

Over a year ago, when the media were already obsessed about alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election, I wrote that the Trump empire’s entanglement with troubled financial giant Deutsche Bank presented the only real existential threat to Donald Trump’s presidency. The media have largely ignored this story in favor of the more sensational (and much more spurious) story about Trump’s alleged collusion with the Russian government during the 2016 election.

They are still doing it today, even in the face of mounting evidence that special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe isn’t really about collusion with Russian election tampering at all. But it’s obvious that one person understands what is really happening, and that’s former Trump adviser Steve Bannon.

According to the Guardian, in an explosive interview with book author Michael Wolff, Bannon made a number of comments about the campaign’s alleged involvement with the Russians that the media is salivating over, including remarks to the effect that Donald Trump Jr.’s Trump Tower meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya was potentially “treasonous.”

At the end of the day, the facts remain pretty simple: The material the Russians obtained was printed by WikiLeaks and would have been printed by WikiLeaks with or without the help of the Trump campaign, and even if it can be proven that the Trump campaign was given inside access to the information before it was published, there is just no evidence that they used it to any effect or that their access to it had any effect on the result of the election at all.


I know that there are a lot of people who simply cannot accept the fact that Trump beat Hillary Clinton because it seems to them that he should not have beaten her, but it’s time for those people to come to grips with the fact that it happened, that it wasn’t the fault of the Russians, and that it is never going to be undone through impeachment.

However, buried in the interview is an indication that Bannon understands where the real danger to Trump’s presidency lies, and that’s from his companies’ financial entanglements with institutions like Deutsche Bank.

How badly are the media missing this story? Bannon’s own assessment of the real danger to Trump isn’t mentioned until the 13th paragraph of the Guardian’s recounting of his interview with Wolff. Then, as an afterthought, the Guardian notes that Bannon said:

“You realise where this is going,” he is quoted as saying. “This is all about money laundering. Mueller chose [senior prosecutor Andrew] Weissmann first and he is a money-laundering guy. Their path to f***ing Trump goes right through Paul Manafort, Don Jr and Jared Kushner … It’s as plain as a hair on your face.” …

Bannon continues: “It goes through Deutsche Bank and all the Kushner s**t. The Kushner s**t is greasy. They’re going to go right through that. They’re going to roll those two guys up and say play me or trade me.”
Whatever you think about Bannon — even if you’re one of the many people who justifiably think very little of him — here is clear evidence that he “gets it,” and it’s astounding that more people in the media don’t.

The sharks have been publicly circling Deutsche Bank for years, for good reason. They are credibly accused of a lengthy list of criminal and regulatory violations, including money laundering for organized crime in Russia — the very thing Paul Manafort was suspected of doing even at the time Trump hired him to run his campaign. As I said last year:

However, Deutsche Bank is in serious trouble, a large portion of which is directly due to criminal and regulatory investigations currently underway at the behest of multiple governments, including the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany. Deutsche is accused of, among other things, helping organized crime elements in Russia disguise suspicious trades, and is facing billions of dollars in potential fines from the U.S. Justice Department alone from these activities, as well as from unrelated regulatory issues related to mortgage securities.

The sum total of the fines faced by the bank threatens its financial solvency. And its position is so precarious that the question of whether the German government will offer a bailout is a major political issue in Germany. If Deutsche fails, the financial effects will ripple across the globe, potentially creating a liquidity crisis similar to the one that created the 2008 recession.
In the midst of all this, the president, his family, and his businesses are massively in debt to Deutsche Bank. It’s difficult to piece together exactly how much Trump, his family, and his business entities owe to Deutsche Bank, but the combined total is almost certainly in the hundreds of millions of dollars. On a personal financial disclosure form from early last year, Trump revealed that he personally owed Deutsche bank “over $50,000,000” — how much over $50 million, we do not know.

Pinning down how much Trump’s various business entities owe to Deutsche Bank is an even slipperier proposition, but it has been estimated at around $300 million, all told.

That doesn’t count the $285 million that Deutsche Bank loaned to Jared Kushner’s companies right before the 2016 elections in a transaction that is now under scrutiny from a completely different set of prosecutors that are not connected to the Mueller probe.

In other words, the family and business enterprises of the president of the United States owe over half a billion dollars to a financial institution that is currently under investigation by the United States Department of Justice for, among other things, allegedly laundering money for the Russian mob. Not to belabor the obvious, but the entirety of the Department of Justice reports directly to the president.

When the DOJ finishes this investigation, the result of that investigation — especially if it lets Deutsche Bank off with a slap on the wrist — will be placed under intense scrutiny.

If Democrats retake the House in 2018, the scrutiny will likely take the form of official committee investigations into Trump’s ties with Deutsche Bank that might well make impeachment politically palatable in a way that “Russian collusion” has not. And if it can be proven that Trump or his family or companies were involved, however indirectly, with the money laundering that Deutsche Bank is accused of, it’s Katy bar the door.

There’s growing evidence that Bannon is exactly right about what Mueller is doing with his probe. The bits about Russian collusion are excellent fodder for the media that is obsessed with the idea that the election was somehow taken away from Hillary Clinton unfairly.

Substantively, though, the real concern for Trump is and always has been his entanglement with the troubled bank, which is why the one actual public threat he has made to fire Mueller centered around any potential investigation into his personal or family finances.

The media cannot help themselves when it comes to talking about Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Steve Bannon knows that Robert Mueller is looking where the bodies are actually buried, if they exist.

He’s trying to tell them, but they seem incapable of listening.

[colliric]

That's because "odd" Presidential financial controversial business and Private entanglements are common, most of the time it doesn't reflect bad on the President himself

Bush Family - Strong, really strong, Financial and personal ties with the extended family of Osama Bin Laden, even though they were technically also trying to have Osama personally killed by the US Army. It's a small World isn't it? The man trying to have Osama killed by the most expensive army in the world was also very friendly with his brother.

Clinton Family - Clinton Foundation.... Nuff said, other financial issues during the Presidency and Hillary's campaign.

Kennedy family - connected personally and financially to the Mafia and several other nasty underworld groups though John's best buddy Frank Sinatra and his own dad too. Jack Ruby's rendezvous with Oswald? If you still believe that was a coincidence I've got some magic beans to sell you.

I'm 100% certain dirt on Obama having controversial financial and Private connections exist as well the other Presidents not mentioned.

That Trump may be in a different ballpark billionaire figure in his financial investments is really not that relevant. There's financial and personal dirt on every President and their "odd connections". Some of which they don't even realise they had(not certain Kennedy even knew about his Mafioso ties, and he probably only found out his Dad rigged that election after he was already President and the press dug it up).

[foxdemon]

Well, I guess we shall soon see. Looks like it is almost high noon on the Hill.

http://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/368247-trumps-presidency-hangs-on-whether-he-can-be-honest-under-oath