NY Times story
Stephen K. Bannon, the embattled chief strategist who helped President Trump win the 2016 election but clashed for months with other senior West Wing advisers, is leaving his post, a White House spokeswoman announced Friday.
“White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Steve Bannon have mutually agreed today would be Steve’s last day,” the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said in a statement. “We are grateful for his service and wish him the best.”
Earlier on Friday, the president had told senior aides that he had decided to remove Mr. Bannon, according to two administration officials briefed on the discussion. But a person close to Mr. Bannon insisted that the parting of ways was his idea, and that he had submitted his resignation to the president on Aug. 7, to be announced at the start of this week. But the move was delayed after the violence in Charlottesville, Va.
The loss of Mr. Bannon, the right-wing nationalist who helped propel some of Mr. Trump’s campaign promises into policy reality, raises the potential for the president to face criticism from the conservative news media base that supported him over the past year.
Mr. Bannon’s many critics bore down after the violence in Charlottesville. Outraged over Mr. Trump’s insistence that “both sides” were to blame for the violence that erupted at a white nationalist rally, leaving one woman dead, human rights activists demanded that the president fire so-called nationalists working in the West Wing. That group of hard-right populists in the White House is led by Mr. Bannon.
The proximate cause could be any of a dozen things. Could be Kelly. More likely is
Bannon's interview where he said North Korea's threat to Seoul with conventional weapons meant military options were basically off the table and called his fellow travelers in white supremacy "clowns." That kind of thing punctures the president's ego and makes him very mad.
This means there's one fewer white supremacist in the White House, which is all to the good. Though as the DNC said:
[it] doesn't change the man sitting behind the Resolute desk.
It's unclear what Bannon does next. He might go right back to Breitbart (supposedly to declare war on Trump, but I'll believe that when I see it). There are also rumors that he and the billionaire racist Mercer family will start a new venture.
Discuss!
The idea that your vote is a moral statement about you or who you vote for is some backwards ass libertarian nonsense. Your vote is about society. Vote to protect the vulnerable.
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If not, I think there's definitely enough of the Confederate stuff/rallies/counter rallies/etc that another thread to keep up with it would be nice.
pleasepaypreacher.net
Also a bit bummed because... while grassroots anger has absolutely turned the pressure up on the Trump admin... honestly their only real enemy at the moment seems to be themselves. (Or to be more specific, Trump)
Like, we've wanted Bannon gone for months with no traction.
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
The interesting thing will be what the white supremacists make of it
Will they turn on trump? Bannon? No one?
Oh no, plenty of people didn't think Bannon was evil.
Or because Bannon was leaking.
Or because Bannon tended to be a voice *against* random new wars (the alt-right are all "fuck the world" when it comes to international politics: both for evil and good.)
He'll go back to spreading garbage information through whatever publication he lands at, while still having a direct line to Trump.
Charlie Spiering works for Brietbart in the White House
Welp, who knows where this goes
Pretty sure Trump's post-Charlotte press conference put the final nail in the coffin of how awful Trump himself is.
Well from what we know he seems to still mostly want to go after Kushner, McMaster, etc... so Trump might have just been sick of the infighting and picked a side.
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
also, I can't remember who but someone reported that bannon said he quit 2 weeks ago. sounds like pure BS considering trump called him a good man like 2 days ago.
Steam: adamjnet
I mean... we kind of have that already?
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
I'm not linking to it because, ha, I'm not linking to it, but the editor of Breitbart California (I think) tweeted just one word
#War
At the time I saw it the tweets directly underneath were
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing!
...and so on. Which went some way towards heartening me.
So far what I'm seeing from the Alt-Right side of the Internet is a lot of spin about how super awesome it is that Bannon has been "unleashed" and how much more he'll be able to do now. I think our only indication on how the man himself feels about all this will come from Breitbart itself, how they report what's happened and how they report on Trump going forward.
Kind of being the important distinction. Obviously the GOP engages in a lot of softly spoken white nationalism, but I worry about a louder and more codified political platform coming forward in the future and I could see it happening here.
(I can dream people)
Bannon was definitely one of the major leakers to newspapers, so I wonder how breaking news will develop from now on.
Also, this will turn the news cycle over yet again, which makes what, 4 major turns in a week?
They aren't going to do that anymore than scarmucci and preibus didn't after being handed their ass. They'll continue to blame liberals and incite racial hatred, which for brietbart is just the usual.
pleasepaypreacher.net
Oh, I see. You mean like a full political movement like the Tea Party but without all the dog whistling?
I personally still have JUST enough faith in humanity that if a Breitbart anti-globalist party formed, I don't think they wouldn't do super well.
Then again, if people hadn't been quite so pissed this week my faith would have been way more shook this week. I wouldn't necessarily want to risk a movement like that sitting around slowly gaining momentum, either. They'd need to be shut down.
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2017/08/18/populist-hero-stephen-k-bannon-returns-home-breitbart/
Steam: adamjnet
I think the splinter talk is mostly wishful thinking.
QEDMF xbl: PantsB G+
Be ready for waves of anti-McMaster stuff in particular.
Anyway, given how past "firings" have gone I doubt Bannon is losing Trump's ear.
I expect attacks on Congressional leadership will ramp up big time, and we will see another big wave of anti-media sentiment
But I guess we've left all sense of tact in politics well behind us, so whatever.
AR Bernard of the Evangelical Advisory committee quit
And there's been another wave of resignations at Commerce from business execs
Still no Cabinet level figures or anything, and they're losing any credible excuse.
QEDMF xbl: PantsB G+
Is it weird that I'm more worried about Trump’s misuse of this information?
I'm hoping the Murdochs' alleged attempts to unseat Bannon lead to Breitbart going after Fox instead of Trump. Bannon can still sway him as long as Fox and Friends isn't contradicting him.
...so not that different than last week, I guess.
But this is perfect. It's almost a best-case outcome as far was we're concerned with respect to Bannon. Trump will destroy himself soon enough; the stretch-goal is to take down everyone else in the circus.
There's conflicting reports about that as well though.
WaPo Reporter
Which jives exactly with earlier stuff about Trump being upset Bannon was getting the spotlight and Trump himself wasn't getting any credit.
Eh, if anything the last two years have taught us it is that you shouldn't count on anything before it is done.
I'm not sure that calling the presidency over, and saying that they'll make SOMETHING of it is the endorsement that some people think. Definitely think it'll be more of them trying to undermine and attack the Kushner/establishment side of things for 'failing' them rather than supporting Trump in any actual way.
I wouldn't be too bummed. I think that pressure is certainly still there, and this makes it even more difficult for Trump to find capable people to fill spots in his cabinet, while making it more likely people continue to jump ship. If he'll axe Bannon..the guy who supposedly won him the election...he'll fire anybody. (Just not to their face.)
So let's talk about President Sessions now