Steve Bannon, who served as Donald Trump’s campaign manager and White House advisor, accused Fox News host Brian Kilmeade of being an “apparatchik” who “doesn’t matter” and suggested the network could face a legal probe over the Murdochs’ foreign loyalties should Trump be reelected in November.
Bannon’s rant followed remarks from Kilmeade, who warned that “if Donald Trump listens to Matt Gaetz and Steve Bannon, he loses” because most Americans “are not on the extremes.”
Kilmeade: “…. And I think if Donald Trump listens to Matt Gaetz and Steve Bannon, he loses. They have to understand that most of the people are not on the extremes. And if you could understand that, you’re going to win. The first one to understand that and does what they think… pic.twitter.com/2KQ19A6uLX
— Wayne DuPree  (@WayneDupreeShow) February 27, 2024
On Tuesday’s “War Room” podcast, Bannon responded as only Bannon can.
“Let’s talk about the Murdochs,” he began, because Kilmeade doesn’t matter.”
“Actually, Brian is, I think, a pretty nice guy, and I’m a fan of his books, ” Bannon acknowledged. “But he’s an apparatchik. He’s just getting paid. So he’s told what to do.”
“Murdoch,” the controversial commentator said, “did I mention they were foreigners?”
Over the weekend, at CPAC, Bannon said, someone with the New York Post, which is owned by the Murdochs, confirmed to him that “it’s getting to the Murdochs that I call them foreigners.”
It “doesn’t sit very well” with “the attorneys” at The Post that Bannon points out that it is “owned by foreigners,” he explained.
“Sorry about that. That’s just reality,” Bannon said. “They’re foreigners and they’re not good foreigners. They’re bad people.”
Bannon: “Everything Fox Stands For We Stand For The Opposite” pic.twitter.com/2gE18hVa9m
— Grace Chong (@gc22gc) February 27, 2024
Because Trump “is ascendent” and winning in the polls, the host explained, Murdoch’s Fox News is pushing a “false narrative” that the former president isn’t winning the primaries by enough points or “pulling in” so-called “establishment Republicans.”
“You don’t see Fox attacking Nikki [Haley] at all,” Bannon stated. “You certainly don’t see them attacking her positions as positions that are stone-cold losers.”
“Why?” he asked. “Because it’s their positions.”
“They are neo-liberal neocons,” Bannon said. “They fully support the concentration of wealth in this nation. They are foreign. It’s a foreign billionaire family that does not have the best interests of the United States in mind, except as a market where they happen to own media assets, including a television network, I believe, illegally, and I believe we could show that in the next Trump administration.”
Murdoch “gundecked his citizenship in the middle of trying to buy Fox Broadcasting,” he continued. “Because guess what? You’re supposed to be an American citizen. Well, they took care of that so he could buy it. It was completely illegal, completely bought foreign.”
Those “neo-liberal neocons,” he said, “never put the nation first, except to how to rape her.”
“And they certainly don’t put you first,” Bannon told his viewers. “You’re always dead last. Right now they’re there guilt-tripping you constantly. The Wall Street Journal constantly. The Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal constantly on the editorial page, ‘Oh, you got to do Ukraine. You have to do Ukraine. You have to do Ukraine.'”
“Have you ever seen more than an obsession about one topic than this?” he asked. “An obsession, because they realize they’re losing their grip.”
Bannon later addressed Kilmeade directly, saying that Fox News “was in on” the theft of the 2020 election.
“Fox was in on that,” he said. “The Murdoch news was in on that.”
“Everything Fox stands for, we stand for the opposite,” Bannon stated. “You know why? We’re populists, nationalists, and they’re neo-liberal neocons.”
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
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