How Steve Bannon uses his Capitol Hill 'cavelike studio' to fuel House GOP chaos: report

04 October 2023

Ex-President Donald Trump's White House strategist Steve Bannon, according to The New York Times, "has been strategizing with" U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) to oust U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy from the House speakership.

Times congressional correspondent Anni Karni reports , "From this cavelike studio not far from where Congress meets, Mr. Bannon, the former Trump adviser, has been stoking the chaos now gripping the Republican Party, capitalizing on the spectacle to build his own following and using his popular podcast to prop up and egg on the G.O.P. rebels."

Karni notes, "His obsession of late was toppling Mr. McCarthy and taking out what he describes as 'uniparty' Republicans who have become indistinguishable from Democrats."

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According to Karni's report, on Wednesday, October 4, Gaetz and U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) — who was one of the eight Republicans to vote McCarthy out — "made a well-worn trek to a 19th-century brick townhouse a few blocks away from the Capitol and entered the cluttered sanctuary of" Bannon's studio for a joint interview on the ex-Trump official's "War Room" podcast.

Karni notes, "Ms. Mace has previously called Mr. Gaetz a 'fraud' and accused him of opposing Mr. McCarthy because he wouldn’t defend him against 'allegations that he sex-trafficked minors.' But all of that appeared to be water under the bridge the morning after Mr. McCarthy's ouster. They were, at least temporarily, allies."

At the start of the podcast, Bannon said, "Tectonic plate shift here in the imperial capital. We must stand in the breach now. We have to lance the boil that is K Street in this nation."

Karni reports:

On Wednesday, Mr. Bannon introduced his guests on his podcasts as the 'architects and heroes of yesterday' and gave them airtime to make a fund-raising pitch.

'I do need help because they’re coming after me,' said Ms. Mace, who represents a politically competitive district. 'They've threatened to dry up all my money. I've had multiple members, previous to the vote last night, threaten to withhold fund-raising if I took this vote. It's a huge amount of pressure. They call your staff, they scare them.' Twice, Mr. Bannon cued her to spell out her campaign website so that listeners could find it.

His audience is still wary of Ms. Mace, a fiscal conservative who leans toward the center on some social issues and voted to hold Mr. Bannon in criminal contempt for defying a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee.

But Mr. Bannon sees her as a gift. Her vote to oust Mr. McCarthy allowed him and his cohorts to push back on the notion that it was only an angry group of ultra-MAGA hard-liners who had lost faith in Mr. McCarthy.

Karni also notes:

In past decades, right-wing rebels on Capitol Hill have encountered trouble getting real traction — shunned by lobbyists and big-money political action committees, excluded from leadership suites in the Capitol and disregarded by Fox News. But with the help of Mr. Bannon, who streams live for four hours every weekday, Mr. Gaetz and others don't need to rely on any of that.

She adds, "With Mr. McCarthy's historic downfall this week, his wing of the party has claimed its most prominent trophy," but during the podcast recording, Gaetz was sure to emphasize, "Do not allow the posse to get punch drunk. There was more work to do."

The New York Times' full report is available at this link (subscription required).

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