{"id":56223,"date":"2018-01-08T05:36:55","date_gmt":"2018-01-08T05:36:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=56223"},"modified":"2018-01-08T05:36:55","modified_gmt":"2018-01-08T05:36:55","slug":"bannon-tries-backing-away-from-explosive-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/news\/bannon-tries-backing-away-from-explosive-comments.html","title":{"rendered":"Bannon Tries Backing Away From Explosive Comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bannon Tries Backing Away From Explosive Comments<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

President TBannon Tries Backing Away From Explosive Commentsrump\u2019s supporters moved aggressively on Sunday to counter revelations in a new book that some of his closest aides believe he is unstable and ill equipped for office, an assault that prompted the source of some of the most damning accusations, Stephen K. Bannon, to issue a striking mea culpa.<\/span><\/p>\n

The multipronged attack, punctuated by a heated appearance on a Sunday talk show by a top White House adviser who was once a close ally of Mr. Bannon, was a sign of how the White House has been reeling from the allegations.<\/span><\/p>\n

The adviser, Stephen Miller, who had been aligned with Mr. Bannon in pushing the president\u2019s nationalist agenda, derided him on Sunday as a fame-seeking blowhard and the book, \u201cFire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,\u201d by Michael Wolff, as a work of fiction.<\/span><\/p>\n

Soon after came a rare and lengthy statement of repentance from Mr. Bannon, who over the last week found himself isolated from his political allies and cut off from his financial patrons. Speaking out five days after he was quoted harshly criticizing the president and his eldest son, a delay he said he regretted, Mr. Bannon tried to reverse his statements completely, calling Donald Trump Jr. \u201cboth a patriot and a good man.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He is quoted in the book as calling the younger Mr. Trump\u2019s meeting with Russians in 2016 \u201ctreasonous.\u201d But in the statement on Sunday, first reported by Axios, he said his reference to \u201ctreason\u201d had been aimed not at the president\u2019s son, but at another campaign official who attended the Trump Tower meeting, Paul Manafort.<\/span><\/p>\n

Calling Mr. Manafort \u201ca seasoned campaign professional with experience and knowledge of how the Russians operate,\u201d Mr. Bannon wrote that Mr. Manafort \u201cshould have known they are duplicitous, cunning and not our friends.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Bannon is not known for second-guessing himself and views apologies as signs of weakness. Nowhere in his statement on Sunday did he actually say he was sorry. But the turn of events represented a stunning reversal of fortune for a man who once operated with such autonomy in the White House that, as chief strategist, he reported only to the president himself. And he reiterated his allegiance in his statement, saying, \u201cMy support is also unwavering for the president and his agenda.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

While the attack on Mr. Bannon may have prompted an unusual expression of contrition from him, the collective force of the attempts to defend the president also ensured that the questions about his mental fitness raised in the book will continue to command attention. This comes as Mr. Trump enters a critical period needing to pass legislation like a spending measure to keep the government open.<\/span><\/p>\n

The president returned to the White House on Sunday from Camp David, where he had held meetings with Republican leaders in Congress, cabinet officials and senior staff members to set priorities for the year. After an initial message on Twitter that focused on policy matters like border security, the opioid epidemic, infrastructure and the status of young undocumented immigrants, Mr. Trump joined the offensive against the book and the news media coverage of it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had to put up with the Fake News from the first day I announced that I would be running for President,\u201d he wrote on Twitter. \u201cNow I have to put up with a Fake Book, written by a totally discredited author.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Bannon has been the target of derision by the president, who has labeled him \u201cSloppy Steve\u201d and has said he played a far lesser role in Mr. Trump\u2019s political rise than he has been given credit for. Even out of favor, Mr. Bannon has said he remains a champion of the president\u2019s agenda.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Mr. Miller, the president\u2019s senior policy adviser, acidly criticized Mr. Bannon in an interview on CNN, calling his comments in the book \u201cout of touch with reality,\u201d \u201cvindictive\u201d and \u201cgrotesque.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In a week that held one indignity after another for Mr. Bannon, who has fancied himself a revolutionary poised to tear down the Republican establishment, the words of Mr. Miller may have cut the deepest.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Miller became a Bannon prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of sorts during the time Mr. Miller worked for Attorney General Jeff Sessions when Mr. Sessions was in the Senate. He became one of the leading voices on the right calling for tighter controls on legal and illegal immigration.<\/span><\/p>\n

The two men shared not just a nationalist-tinged conservative view on policy but a desire for political provocation. Mr. Bannon and Mr. Trump were delighted by and cheered on some of Mr. Miller\u2019s more infamous and combative episodes with the news media, like when he chastised a CNN reporter for displaying \u201ccosmopolitan bias\u201d in his understanding of the White House\u2019s immigration positions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Miller, however, bristled at the suggestion that he was a Bannon creation, a perception Mr. Bannon himself often encouraged.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Bannon\u2019s allies understood the White House\u2019s moves this past week to be an act of ruthless political war much like Mr. Bannon himself might have waged during his time in the administration.<\/span><\/p>\n

They said they believed that the president and senior aides like Kellyanne Conway, who is close to Rebekah Mercer, the billionaire who issued a rare statement last week disavowing Mr. Bannon, were sending activists and donors a clear message: He is persona non grata in conservative politics. Ms. Mercer is a partial owner of Breitbart News, the hard-right website where Mr. Bannon is executive chairman but where his future is now in doubt.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Sunday, it was Mr. Miller who had the political leverage. He cast as false the perception that Mr. Bannon had ever played a Svengali-like role in the presidential campaign and the White House.<\/span><\/p>\n

He said Mr. Bannon\u2019s role had been \u201cgreatly exaggerated,\u201d even as the CNN host Jake Tapper ticked off a long list of policies he said Mr. Bannon had played a key role in formulating.<\/span><\/p>\n

In \u201cFire and Fury,\u201d Mr. Bannon said Mr. Trump had \u201clost his stuff,\u201d and Mr. Miller also tried on Sunday to counter the concerns about the president\u2019s mental state. Echoing the president\u2019s own words from Saturday, he called Mr. Trump a \u201cpolitical genius\u201d who could rattle off complete paragraphs on the fly in response to news events and then deliver them \u201cflawlessly\u201d to a campaign audience.<\/span><\/p>\n

The interview, on the program \u201cState of the Union,\u201d quickly grew heated as Mr. Tapper accused Mr. Miller of being \u201cobsequious\u201d and speaking to an \u201caudience of one.\u201d Before it ended, Mr. Tapper told Mr. Miller that he was wasting his audience\u2019s time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Tapper then turned to the camera, even as Mr. Miller was still speaking, and cut to a commercial.<\/span><\/p>\n

A short time later, the president praised his aide on Twitter, saying that Mr. Miller had \u201cdestroyed\u201d Mr. Tapper in the interview.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to assailing Mr. Bannon, Mr. Miller sharply criticized Mr. Wolff and his book, saying it \u201cis best understood as a work of very poorly written fiction.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Wolff, appearing on NBC\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press,\u201d stood by the accuracy of his book and contradicted the White House account of how often he had talked to the president.<\/span><\/p>\n

White House officials said their records showed that Mr. Wolff had last talked to the president in February, but Mr. Wolff said he had talked to the president several times after that. In all, Mr. Wolff said, he talked to the president for about three hours, which also included interviews during the campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n

He said that Mr. Trump had even initially flattered him about the project, and that he had told interview subjects that \u201cthe president said he likes this idea\u201d of a book.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Wolff also repeated an assertion in the book that many in the White House had talked about the possible invocation of the 25th Amendment, a constitutional provision that permits a president\u2019s powers to be transferred to the vice president when the vice president and a majority of the cabinet or a body created by Congress conclude that the president is incapable of performing his duties.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is alarming in every way,\u201d Mr. Wolff said, adding, \u201cThis is worse than everybody thought.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Appearing on Sunday talk shows, others in Mr. Trump\u2019s inner circle dismissed any such worries.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mike Pompeo, the C.I.A. director, said that he had no concerns about Mr. Trump\u2019s ability to receive and process the kind of intelligence typically presented to presidents, and that Mr. Wolff\u2019s descriptions of Mr. Trump\u2019s mental state were \u201cpure fantasy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m with him almost every day,\u201d Mr. Pompeo said on \u201cFox News Sunday.\u201d \u201cWe talk about some of the most serious matters facing America and the world, complex issues. The president is engaged. He understands the complexity. He asks really difficult questions of our team at C.I.A.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican who was briefly a rival to Mr. Trump for the Republican nomination and, until recently, had been a frequent critic of the president, joined his defenders on Sunday.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve enjoyed his company,\u201d he said on \u201cMeet the Press.\u201d \u201cHe beat me like a dog. I\u2019ve said everything I know to say about him \u2014 I\u2019ve used every adjective on the planet. I lost. He won.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019s crazy,\u201d Mr. Graham continued. \u201cI think he\u2019s had a very successful 2017. And I want to help him where I can. And we should all want him to be successful. He\u2019s got a lot on his plate.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

With Republican control of the House and possibly the Senate at risk in 2018, Mr. Trump cannot afford another year dominated by news of West Wing dysfunction.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is people want the president to deliver, and this is a side show,\u201d said Sam Nunberg, a former aide to the Trump campaign who is now close with Mr. Bannon.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Nunberg added that the president\u2019s disavowals of his former strategist would mean little to voters. \u201cThe irony is the president is going to have a rude awakening when numerous candidates during the midterms respectfully decline his offer to campaign with them,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/01\/07\/us\/politics\/stephen-miller-cnn-trump-bannon-apology.html?mtrref=news.google.com&gwh=1A1450DCF937AEDD930FB9ADA9103E63&gwt=pay<\/span><\/p>\n

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