Steve Bannon Claims 35 MAGA Heads Were Raided By ‘Jack Booted Gestapo’ FBI Agents, Devices Seized

“It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.” — Mark Twain

What made Breitbart a viable organ, financially speaking, is that it played into the cynical contempt that its founders had about the stupidity of the far-right. That cynicism, coupled with a circus atmosphere and disrespect for common decency, made Andrew Breitbart rich. And Steve Bannon did just fine as well.

Today is no different from any other day. Bannon is on the airwaves, insulting the intelligence of his listeners and lying through his teeth. He makes some good coin doing this. And in the society in which we live, a guy who has found a lucrative scam is as respected than the man who works hard and makes his living honestly. In fact, let’s be honest, he’s more respected, because that’s how far down our morality has plunged. Hard work is for suckers and Cash is King. Here’s Bannon’s latest baloney.

Bannon claims that the FBI seized the electronic devices of 35 Republicans who are “close to Trump” yesterday. pic.twitter.com/pM8DdmvxiH

— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) September 9, 2022

This is from Charlie Sykes’ newsletter and is the best analysis of this that you’re going to read all day.

After his perp walk Thursday, Bannon played the part of a defiant, smirking political victim. But as the latest indictment reminds us, he’s merely a badly-dressed crook, who knew he could prey upon his gullible fan base. He is both an architect and artifact of the MAGA movement.

It’s worth remembering that beneath all the Sturm und Drang of its “semi-fascism,” Donald Trump’s MAGA has always been a shabby fraud built upon a cynical contempt for its own true-believers.

Writes Greg Sargent:

The outsize role of grift in American conservatism is a story that goes back at least a half century. But Trump glommed on to those tendencies while also exacerbating them in his own ugly ways, and the Bannon saga is a particularly grotesque example of that.

Bannon and a group of associates allegedly raised $25 million from hundreds of thousands of donors for something called “We Build the Wall.” In 2020, federal prosecutors charged that Bannon had lied when he said he wouldn’t take any compensation, instead raking in $1 million for himself and a co-conspirator through a nonprofit group.

For your edification, I’d suggest reading some of the details of the new indictment:

WeBuildtheWall, Inc. solicited donations through the Crowdfunding Website … as well as in media appearances by UnindictedCo-Conspirator 1, Bannon, and others, as well as in emails to potential donors, updates to WeBuildTheWall, Inc.’s own website, and on social media. Starting on January 11, 2019, a key part of these solicitations was the promise that Unindicted Co-Conspirator 1 would “personally not take a penny of compensation from these donations.”

That was, of course, total bullshit.

The object of the conspiracy was to promote WeBuildTheWall, Inc.’s fraudulent efforts to raise money through donations by obscuring the fact that, contrary to WeBuildTheWall, Inc.’s representations about Unindicted Co-Conspirator 1 not taking a salary, Unindicted Co-Conspirator 1 was in fact receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation from WeBuildTheWall, Inc. In order to obscure Unindicted Co-Conspirator 1’s salary, and with intent to promote the carrying on of the Scheme to Defraud, the defendants WeBuildTheWall, Inc. and Bannon, and others, caused WeBuildTheWall, Inc. to transfer hundreds of thousands of dollars to various third-party entities, including entities controlled by Bannon and others, which would then transfer a portion of the money received to Unindicted Co-Conspirator 1.

**

One of Trump’s most successful rhetorical tactics is his claim that any attacks on him are really an attack on his loyal supporters. He is their voice. They are under attack. He alone can protect them.

But the opposite is true. As Tim Miller wrote here a few days ago:

When it comes to Trump’s contempt for his own fans what more evidence do you need than his behavior on January 6th. He doesn’t even care about his most loyal foot soldiers. He’s letting them rot in jail, their lives ruined, because they acted on his bid to combat. Ashli Babbitt and others are dead because they believed a lie he told to protect his own vanity.

Tens of thousands of other Trump voters died because they refused a life-saving vaccine thanks to MAGA leaders who fed them lies about Bill Gates wanting to track them as part of an experiment into the effects of Cracker Barrel on the human body.

Because here’s the truth: Nobody cares less about MAGA Americans than Donald Trump and his coterie of MAGA elites.

They literally let their own voters die in a bid to keep power.

When Trump says that he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue without losing the support of the MAGA base, Trump is, of course marveling at his own popularity. But he is also admitting his deeply felt disdain for the rubes and marks who have fallen into his hands. Trump’s contempt for his supporters is shared by others in his orbit, including Bannon, who know that they can monetize their lies and scams by fleecing their most loyal backers.

They are counting on their marks to: (1) continue to buy the con and pony up the cash, (2) not realize that they are being lied to and ripped off.

As David Frum has repeatedly noted, victims of scams are often angrier at those who point out the ruse than at the fraudsters themselves.

But as hopeless as it might seem, somebody needs to tell them.

Mark Twain was right. And it is sad to see the once-duped MAGAs melt down. You see it over and over again. Couy Griffin was a staunch Trump believer. He founded cowboys for Trump. Then he became disillusioned. Now he’s been relieved of his elected county office in New Mexico and barred from further office under the Insurrection Act, the first time since 1869.

Look for more of these tales. This is the direction we’re going. Eventually, we’ll get into the post-grift phase of the Trump era, but not immediately. For now, the beat goes on. And the MAGAs are still shelling out.