'Morning Joe' Horrified by Steve Bannon's Strange Claim to Be Leninist
On Monday, President Trump proclaimed himself a "total nationalist," sending Joe Scarborough into a fit of laughter on Tuesday's episode of "Morning Joe."
"Is that the influence of Stephen Bannon?" co-host Mika Brzezinski asked. The team then turned to a "Daily Beast" article about the White House chief strategist from August 2016. In that piece, author Ron Radosh writes relates his strange meeting with Bannon.
"I met Steve Bannon—the executive director of Breitbart.com who’s now become the chief executive of the Trump campaign, replacing the newly resigned Paul Manafort—at a book party held in his Capitol Hill townhouse on Nov. 12, 2013," Radosh writes.
“I’m a Leninist,” said Bannon. “Lenin… wanted to destroy the state, and that’s my goal too. I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today’s establishment.”
Bannon refused to comment on the remark when Radosh emailed him last year.
“This is so bizarre,” remarked Scarborough.
“No,” said Brzezinski. “It’s disturbing; It’s horrifying.” Bannon—for what it’s worth—said he didn’t remember the conversation, according to the report. (Bannon emailed Radosh saying, "I don’t remember meeting you and don’t remember the conversation. And as u can tell from the past few days I am not doing media.")
Scarborough then mused that it'd be "hard to find" a more villainous leader to worship, before reiterating Bannon's own words: "What's really disturbing is he says he wants to 'destroy the state.'"
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