Former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon wasted no time in getting back to work and immediately bashed Vice President Kamala Harris as a “fascist” in his return to the airwaves Tuesday after his release from federal prison.
“The four months in federal prison not only didn’t break me, but it empowered me,” the 70-year-old told his “War Room” podcast listeners hours after his release.
Bannon seemed to pick up right where he left off. Twenty minutes in, he complimented himself for having “found his rhythm” after equating the Harris campaign to fascists, warning his listeners about Democrats “stealing the election” and calling himself a “political prisoner.”
His return to the podcast kicked off with an attempt to portray the mainstream media as unfair, showing a montage of anti-Trump clips from MSNBC, a New York Times headline previewing Bannon’s release, before cutting to a livestream of a long-haired Bannon speaking into the microphone. He said these clips showed “radicals” who have “no intention of giving up power.”
Bannon also questioned the integrity of the upcoming presidential election. The former Trump adviser warned his listeners about the “delegitimization process” and the need to prevent “them from stealing the election.” He said Democrats will do anything to try to “nullify and delegitimize” the election results if Trump wins.
“We’ll have a blowout win if we do our job,” Bannon said, saying Trump will get his “third victory.”
Trump has to “crush” the Harris campaign on November 5, he said. In swing states, all that matters is to “put it beyond their ability to steal it.”
He also claimed it was “impossible for [Harris] to generate any enthusiasm” and called her campaign and those who support it a “fascist movement” that resembles the “German American Bund in the 1930s,” referring to a Nazi organization that cropped up in the US.
The former president has repeatedly called his Democratic opponent a “fascist” while on the campaign trail. Last week, Harris called Trump a fascist after his longest-serving chief of staff John Kelly labeled him one. On Monday, the former president reassured his crowd: “I’m not a Nazi. I’m the opposite of a Nazi.”
The Trump ally had been held at FCI Danbury in Connecticut after being convicted of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena to testify before the January 6 House panel.
His daughter Maureen met him at the facility on Tuesday upon his release — one week before the presidential election, CNN reported.
Although he’s spent time away from the microphone while in the suburban Connecticut prison, he has remained in Trump’s ear. The podcaster has been teaching civics classes to a group of about 50 fellow inmates every Tuesday this fall in federal prison, Rolling Stone reported, where he has continued to spread Trumpian views.
Bannon described himself as a “political prisoner” and called the Department of Justice “corrupt.”
He echoed these claims on Tuesday, saying he was sent by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to slow “down the power of the show and also to break me.” That time in prison didn’t “break” him, but “empowered” him, he told his listeners proudly.
During his time behind bars, half of the inmates who attended his classes were Black, Rolling Stone reported. He said he gleaned an insight into Trump’s following from his time locked up.
“I can tell you in being a political prisoner in a federal prison that the young men in this country that are African American and Hispanic detest Kamala Harris. They detest her.” He said “we have a chance to move past race on November 5.”
“Our coalition is now going to include a wide swathe of African American men and Hispanic men. This is the game changer,” he added.
Bannon held a press conference in New York City in the afternoon, where he was interrupted by a heckler — clad in a red suit, bandana and sunglasses.
He asked the Trump ally: “When’s the next insurrection and can we storm the Burger King after this?”
The man then added: “Doesn’t he look great now? We were in Danbury together! You don’t remember me? We were lifting weights and stuff in the weight room. When’s the next insurrection?” Security then escorted the stranger out of the room.
Bannon also used the press conference to slam Harris for calling Trump a “fascist” — despite calling her and her supporters that exact term hours earlier: “This rhetoric is dangerous.”
