Donald Trump Bashes Steve Bannon: He ‘Lost His Mind’
Jan. 04--WASHINGTON -- President Trump lashed out against his former chief strategist Steve Bannon, dismissing him as a self-serving bit player in his campaign and White House who "lost his mind" after he was fired.
The bitter denunciation came after Bannon was quoted in a new book criticizing a number of people in Trump's inner circle, including Trump's top aide and son-in-law Jared Kushner, daughter Ivanka Trump, son Donald Trump Jr. and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
In Michael Wolff's book "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House," Bannon called the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting of Kushner, the younger Trump, Manafort and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya held to discuss potential Russian-preferred dirt on Hillary Clinton's campaign "treasonous."
"Even if you thought that this was not treasonous, or unpatriotic, or bad (expletive), and I happen to think it's all of that, you should have called the FBI immediately," Bannon is quoted as saying. "But that's the brain trust that they had."
Bannon also suggested Manafort, the younger Trump and Kushner pose legal perils to the president.
"This is all about money laundering," Bannon said. Mueller's investigators' "path to (expletive) Trump goes right through Paul Manafort, Don Jr. and Jared Kushner. ... It's as plain as a hair on your face.
"They're going to crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV," Bannon said of the Russian investigation.
Trump responded to excerpts of the book released yesterday with a blistering statement downplaying Bannon's influence and importance to his campaign and White House.
"Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my Presidency," Trump said. "When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind."
"Steve doesn't represent my base -- he's only in it for himself," Trump said, adding that the Breitbart chairman is now "simply seeking to burn it all down."
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders dismissed the book yesterday as "trashy tabloid fiction."
Trump's statement is a stark departure from comments he made about Bannon after he was ousted in August and returned to the conservative website he led before joining Trump's campaign.
"Steve Bannon will be a tough and smart new voice at @BreitbartNews ... maybe even better than before," Trump tweeted after Bannon's departure.
Bannon said that he continued to talk to Trump regularly after leaving the White House, including urging Trump to endorse failed Alabama U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore despite sexual abuse claims against him.
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