Steve Bannon, former White House strategist and one of Donald Trump's top allies, explained a two-part approach to target the Biden administration and federal agencies in response to Trump's federal indictment in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case.
A federal grand jury indicted Trump last week for the way he handled hundreds of classified documents and allegedly obstructed efforts to return them to the federal government. Many of the documents were seized by the FBI in a search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida last August, while some were returned by his lawyers. The Department of Justice (DOJ) later appointed special counsel Jack Smith to oversee the investigation. Trump denies any wrongdoing and maintains his innocence, and pleaded "not guilty" at his arraignment in Miami on Tuesday.
Bannon outlined a new strategy on his War Room podcast on Saturday, which he described as a "two-pronged attack" on the Biden administration, the DOJ, and the FBI as part of a revenge campaign in response to what he thinks is a politically-motivated prosecution of Trump.
"This movement is two-pronged. One is through the House [of Representatives], where we have leverage there and and the other is a full on war against the administrative state. And that administrative state is encapsulated in the Trump 2024 campaign," he said.
Bannon is among a number of Trump loyalists who want to unite all Republicans and Trump supporters to go "on offense" after the Biden administration. He told Newsweek on Sunday that the plan is to lead a movement against the "administrative state," which he said is "exemplified by the woke and weaponized DOJ and FBI."
The former White House strategist said that the plan in the upcoming week is to demand appropriations measures and "real" budget cuts in the House.
"[We'll signal that] unless this is done, there's going to be a government shutdown. Biden's gonna be forced to shut down the government and to really light a fire under these investigative apparatuses [GOP probes] which are not going fast enough, particularly [Representative Jim] Jordan's [investigation] into the weaponization of government and judiciary," Bannon said.
Jordan, an Ohio Republican who serves as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has been pushing for appropriation measures that would slash funding for the FBI and DOJ, according to Axios. Meanwhile, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy hinted at using the appropriations process to cut funding for the FBI's new headquarters, The Wall Street Journal reported last Wednesday.
Bannon also told Newsweek that the second part of the two-pronged movement would be centered around supporting Trump for another presidential term. He added that this two-part movement would show Republicans who don't support Trump the "two-tier system of government" in the United States.
"We are trying to rally those people who are not particularly elected officials and members of the party that are not Trump devotees or are not Trump supporters and to make sure that we focus on the outrageous disclosures of the Biden administration," he said.
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About the writer
Fatma Khaled is a Newsweek weekend reporter based in New York City. Her focus is reporting on U.S. politics, world ... Read more
