“They’re going to crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV....Even if you thought that this was not treasonous, or unpatriotic, or bad shit, and I happen to think it’s all of that, you should have called the FBI immediately.” (emphasis added)After being told by the Russians that they had political dirt on Hillary Clinton, Donald Jr. was reported to have said, "I love it."
Bannon also predicted -- as we have -- that underlying all of Rump's affection for the Kremlin are the infusions of laundered Russian oligarch and government money, much of it via Deutsche Bank, that is keeping his organization afloat after U.S. banks turned him down as a bad risk:
“You realise where this is going. This is all about money laundering. Mueller chose [senior prosecutor Andrew] Weissmann first and he is a money-laundering guy. Their path to fucking Trump goes right through Paul Manafort, Don Jr and Jared Kushner …" (emphasis added)When the book is released next week, you can bet that Rump's inner circle and loyalists will be rushing to the book store (or on line) and seeing if their name appears in the index. As for Rump, expect some more irresponsible, unhinged distraction- tweeting.
BONUS: Happily, Bannon's words have caused the slack- jawed spittle- flickers over at Breitbart.com's comments section to erupt in a mini- uncivil war. Bwahahaha.
UPDATE: Rump's livid over Bannon's "treasonous" remarks about his greasy namesake and his bumbling son-in-law, and says Bannon "has lost his mind." Popcorn, anyone?
Here's Rump's statement:
”Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my Presidency. When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind. Steve was a staffer who worked for me after I had already won the nomination by defeating seventeen candidates, often described as the most talented field ever assembled in the Republican party.
”Now that he is on his own, Steve is learning that winning isn’t as easy as I make it look. Steve had very little to do with our historic victory, which was delivered by the forgotten men and women of this country. Yet Steve had everything to do with the loss of a Senate seat in Alabama held for more than thirty years by Republicans. Steve doesn’t represent my base — he’s only in it for himself.
”Steve pretends to be at war with the media, which he calls the opposition party, yet he spent his time at the White House leaking false information to the media to make himself seem far more important than he was. It is the only thing he does well. Steve was rarely in a one-on-one meeting with me and only pretends to have had influence to fool a few people with no access and no clue, whom he helped write phony books.
“We have many great Republican members of Congress and candidates who are very supportive of the Make America Great Again agenda. Like me, they love the United States of America and are helping to finally take our country back and build it up, rather than simply seeking to burn it all down.”Munch, munch, munch.
UPDATE II:
Trump condensed:— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) January 3, 2018
My senior policy advisor? I had nothing to do with him.
My campaign chairman? Only with me for a short time.
My national security advisor? A liar.
My foreign policy advisor? He was just a coffee boy.
Don Jr? Um ... fake news!
