Hours after leaving federal prison in Connecticut, Steve Bannon returned to hosting his podcast with his usual fire and fury about forcefully seizing a Republican victory in next week’s election.
“The four months in federal prison not only didn’t break me, it empowered me. I am more energized and more focused than I’ve ever been in my entire life,” he said, calling for right-wing Americans to prepare for a vicious fight well beyond Election Day to ensure Donald Trump returns to power.
Notably, Bannon was also surrounded by top MAGA figures, fulfilling his promise to immediately play a role in attempting to return Trump to the White House.
His show guests included Mike Davis, reportedly a top contender for attorney general who’s asserted he’s built “lists” of journalists he’d imprison and send to a “D.C. gulag” during a “three-week reign of terror,” and former Trump White House Cabinet Secretary Bill McGinley, one of the leading members of the Republican National Committee’s election integrity team taking part in legal skirmishes across the country.
The show advertised two other guest appearances: Boris Epshteyn, known as the highest-ranking gatekeeper to Trump and the campaign’s senior adviser, and Kash Patel, an irascible member of MAGA’s inner circle who bounced around several national security roles in the previous administration and has warned government officials and reporters that “we’re going to come after you” in Trump’s second term. Neither showed up, but their top billing indicates just how close Bannon remains with the Trump operation’s top brass. Patel has been rumored as a possible CIA pick.
On Tuesday, Bannon, broadcasting from an upper floor in a midtown Manhattan building instead of his home studio in Washington, D.C., focused on calling on voters to flood the polls to stem a Democratic resurgence in government. He used his time in prison as a backdrop to fuel a conspiracy-minded narrative that Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party pose some sort of dictatorial-like threat.
“You know, Nancy Pelosi sent me to a federal prison. She sent me to a federal prison as a political prisoner to do two things: to make sure that she tried to tamp down the power of this show … and also to break me,” he said.
“This show has never been more powerful. The voices behind it have never been more powerful,” he proclaimed. “And we’re going to deliver a knockout blow to your progressive insanity on 5 November, and then we’re going to secure the deal after that.”
Bannon, who always peppers his speeches with militaristic lingo, laid out a “three-phase” operation to put Trump back in the White House, stressing that their fight won’t be over when the polls close next Tuesday. The rhetoric adds to what is already becoming a standard election strategy for die-hard MAGA types: simultaneously calling for voter engagement while preemptively fearmongering about widespread electoral fraud — setting themselves up to question election results if Trump loses.
Bannon repeatedly referenced his intention to have a 3 p.m. press conference during which he’d speak about his takeaways from his four months at FCI Danbury, a low-security federal prison in suburban Connecticut where inmates exclusively told NOTUS that he found a home with the “white car” population behind bars and tended to hang out “with the Italians, the godfather type.”
Bannon continued to serve as a Trump surrogate in prison, espousing the MAGA gospel to fellow inmates and justifying the former president’s bellicose approach to politics.
“He said that Trump understands that you have to take over the government in order to change it!” said Andre Calix, who is serving a 13-year term for bank robbery and weapons charges.
On his show, Bannon claimed that his experience with jailed felons showed him Black and Hispanic men “hate” Harris, but he saved any details for later in the day.
“I learned a lot. There’s a lot of lessons there for the MAGA movement,” he said.
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Jose Pagliery is a reporter at NOTUS.