The January sixth committee members are faced with two questions regarding the tentative appearance of Steve Bannon as a witness. Is he trying to use the committee to save his skin and avoid a possible conviction on the contempt of Congress charges he is facing because he refused the committee’s subpoena? Or is he there to be combative and scream out more CRT, white supremacy, and deep state conspiracy theories? Conventional wisdom would have Bannon showing up disheveled, wearing multiple wrinkled shirts, and looking in need of a shower and lots of moisturizers. From there, so goes the common sense that he will spout threats of arrest to the committee members and turn the hearings into a boot-lapping circus for his one-person audience.
Steve Bannon may be evil, but he is not stupid. I believe he will use his podcast show over the next few days to go into full white supremacy mode. As repugnant as he is to many, he will try to make himself so hideous that the committee will deny his request to testify. Thereby making his initial refusal to testify voluntarily and subsequently ignoring a subpoena moot. I can hear the diatribe now that the committee will have him testify on video so the deep state can selectively edit his words; they are afraid to confront me live because I will expose them. Some members of the Trump cult will go along, and others will wait for Tucker, Sean, and Laura to tell them what to think.
No matter that Bannon is an admitted felon, which is part of accepting a pardon. He stole money from the red hats, the elderly, and other fixed-income Trumpers, getting them to contribute to a non-viable ‘We Build the Wall’ fund. Steve Bannon, a former Trump adviser, is already weaving a web of lies into his newly compliant stance. Bannon first tried to use the cover of executive privilege, a story that Trump’s lawyer [Justin Clark] says is not true. Of course, Bannon’s lawyers produced a letter supposedly from Mr. Trump saying he had invoked his imaginary Executive Privilege.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Bannon have led followers into a maze of liars and cohorts who will brazenly lie willingly or under duress. If one allows themselves to travel the wormhole of lies, half-truths, and the smattering of small, manipulated truths, the resulting confusion is how Mr. Trump survives scandal after scandal. From labeling his quote siding with Vladimir Putin over American intelligence or the hush money to adult entertainer Stormy Daniels, the former president counts on time, confusion, and being obnoxiously entertaining to save his ample bacon.
My advice to the American people is to Beware of Bannon. I have read that confronting a psychological liar can be dangerous, and Mr. Bannon likes confrontation. It is hard to avoid amateur psychiatry when it comes to Trump, Bannon, Miller, and the many others who joined the vengeance band and show. When Mr. Trump is questioned or reliably accused of criminality, his response is almost always a scorched earth retaliation. Ending the career of Col. Alexander Vindman or (temporarily) taking away the retirement pension of former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe the day before he was to be vested are just a few of his actions not just meant to hurt but destroy the lives and families of good men and women.
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