Steve Bannon had a war room in the White House, replete with a portrait of himself as Napolean, an oversized white board which contained every promise Trump made during the campaign, and most importantly, a “shit list” which he and Trump compiled, of Trump’s enemies to be eradicated. Unfortunately, after “Fire and Fury” was published, Bannon found himself at the top of said shit list and was subsequently banished by Trump, and Breitbart and the Mercers. To this day Republicans roll their eyes at the mention of his name. Be that as it may, Bannon has returned, Rasputinesque, and he intends to reestablish his relevancy, starting with saving the House for the GOP in November. Axios:
Bannon said his new group [COAR] is aimed at stoking the “populist-nationalist movement” that put Trump into office, and includes booking, messaging and rapid-response operations that regularly brief friendly cable-news pundits.
- “The war room is up and running,” Bannon bragged, saying Citizens of the American Republic will focus on the triumvirate of ideas, communication and action.
- “When I got involved [with the Trump presidential campaign] in August 2016, Trump was down 12, 14, 16 points. Democrats thought I was a clown. They never took him seriously. We caught them napping. We can do it again.”
The effort to hold the House for Republicans “is more winnable” than Trump’s campaign was three months before Election Day, Bannon contends.
- “I think we can hold this to a net loss [for Republicans] of under 15 seats.” (Democrats need to flip 23 seats to take House; top Republicans fear losses of 40 or more seats.)
- “All the whining I hear among establishment Republicans, all the whining I hear in the official corridors of the Republican Party, has got to stop.”
Bannon is characterizing the midterms as Trump’s “first re-elect.” Politico:
“It’s very simple to me. This is a referendum on Trump, up-or-down vote on impeachment,” he said. “This other side, they’re very motivated — and they’re motivated for one thing: They want to impeach Donald Trump.”
“It’s all on the table Nov. 6,” said Bannon, who flatly asserted that Democrats would impeach Trump if they seized control of the House. “This is the re-elect. How do you use this to trigger the civil war in the Democratic party? You must win. [The midterms] have more value than the typical, ‘We‘re holding the House.‘”
Bannon’s reasoning is that the Republicans not only need to hold the House as the first re-elect, with many more to come, one presumes, but he also declares that the Democratic party will erupt in civil war on November 6, as well — a win win scenario.
“If we get to October and that blue wave is not evident, those people who walked those districts in July, they’re going to say ‘How can this possibly be?’” he said.
“There is a tremendous advantage to winning this. The civil war in the Democratic Party will start on Nov. 6 if they don’t win.”
Now how does Bannon intend to effectuate this miracle that will have the Democrats eating each other like rats and Trump bouncing back more resilient than moss growing on a volcano? Simple. Through his film making genius. Bannon has made a film, “Trump@War” about which he says, “If you’re a deplorable, you’ll literally standing on your chair with your pitchfork saying: ‘I’ve got to get people out to vote.'”
Here’s the trailer. Maybe it is catnip to the deplorables, but to a normal sensibility, it’s so monochromatic and monotonous that it would have to rise several levels to become even pedestrian. Don’t look for this opus to be nominated in the Academy’s new category of “Most Popular Film.”
