Bannon’s Prison Sentence Is Over and He Has Nothing New To Say
Why did more than 75 news people cram into a Park Avenue hotel room meant for maybe half that number yesterday? Because Steve Bannon was released from a low-security prison in Danbury, Connecticut, and, ostensibly, we wanted to hear what Donald Trump’s former campaign manager had to say one week before a presidential election that is anybody’s to lose.
Perhaps we just wanted to see the show, which included several dudes on the podium who looked like they had just left prep school—a Tucker Carlson Jr. squad in suits and sneaks—including a guy reporters thought resembled either Sam Bankman-Fried or a younger Charlie Kirk.
“They’re maybe two, three years old,” he said, when someone in the press pool commented on his sweet Jordans. “Anyone want to take a picture?”
Several did, as we waited for the press conference Bannon had called to start. More reporters arrived, leaving several of us pretzeled on the floor.Â
“I’m getting too old to do this,” said an NBC correspondent who looked younger than 40.Â
Bannon finally appeared, looking marginally slimmer and wearing only one button-down shirt under a jacket you might wear for duck hunting, and was greeted by a light smattering of applause.Â
“Thank you everybody for coming,” he said. “The first statement I made from Danbury, I think four weeks ago, was that victory was coming, that you could see the collapse of this kind of phony campaign of the politics of joy.”
Bannon disparaged the “politics of joy” eight times during his 39 minutes of remarks. He would seven times bring up the name of attorney Marc Elias, who filed multiple lawsuits against Trump following the 2020 election and who has now been hired by the Harris campaign. He engaged in the ritual airing of grievances, repeatedly labeling the Biden administration, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and especially former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as evildoers—accusations that did not quite land. Though Bannon had been in prison only four months for defying a Congressional subpoena investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the exercise felt stale, like asking us to root hard against last season’s Marvel villains.
There was likewise nothing fresh in what Bannon was offering, nor would he be backing down from the idea that Biden’s victory in 2020 was illegitimate.
“The 2020 election was stolen,” he said. “I will never back off that.”
This played well with some in a
Article from Reason.com
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