Former White House strategist Steve Bannon has made it clear that Donald Trump is not lying. But according to a new book, Bannon told aides: “Trump would say anything, he would lie about anything.”
The former president is lying “to win whatever alternative he has now”, said Bannon.
Bannon is quoted in The Big Lie: Election Chaos, Political Opportunism, and the State of American Politics after 2020, by Jonathan Lemire, White House policy director and MSNBC host. The book will be published on July 26. The Guardian has obtained a copy.
Lemire’s name refers to Trump’s lie, supported by Bannon, that his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden was the result of election fraud. That lie fueled the attempted coup that culminated in the deadly attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
A far-right gadfly and provocateur, Bannon managed Trump’s 2016 campaign and then spent less than a year in the White House before being fired.
The source of many books about Trump – even saying that he believed that Trump had dementia in the early stages – returned to the inner circle of the 45th to play a central role in his attempt to retain power.
This week, Mother Jones published an audio recording three days before polling day in which Bannon told Trump’s friends he planned to “only announce victory” on election night.
Trump did not, but Bannon continued to work to keep the president in power.
Lemire reported that Bannon promised January 6, the day Congress will declare the results of the Electoral College, so “the dark date, known only to a few political junkies… will [come] ‘to be known all over the world.’ ‘.
On January 6, Trump told his supporters to “fight like hell” and march on the Capitol. Authorities have linked nine deaths to the ensuing violence. More than 870 people have been charged, some accused of conspiracy.
Bannon’s role in Trump’s bid to retain power, including ties to far-right groups including the Sons of Honor and Oath Keepers, is a central focus of the House’s Jan. 6 panel.
Bannon refused to comply with the subpoena. He has since offered to testify but jury selection in his trial on congressional charges — charges that could carry prison time — is scheduled for Monday.
Bannon escaped another brush with the law at the end of Trump’s presidency, when Trump pardoned his former adviser in a corruption case.
As president, Trump has been known to lie. One Washington Post count found he did so 30,573 times during his time in office.
However, in 2018, Bannon made headlines by telling ABC News that Trump had not lied.
Bannon told Trump he “doesn’t always tell the truth”, he said: “I don’t know that” and also said that Trump’s claim that he lied is “another smear on him”.
The host, Jonathan Karl, asked: “The president has never lied?”
Bannon said: “Not to my knowledge, no.”
But Lemire wrote that “even with Bannon, Trump was new. The chief strategist told me that Trump ‘wasn’t looking to win the news cycle, he was looking to win the news moment, the second news.’
“A panicked Bannon would sometimes convey to aides that ‘Trump will say anything, he will lie about anything to win the moment, to win whatever alternative he had at the time.’
“All campaign proposals had to be written on the fly, political plans reworked, teams of aides immediately mobilized to meet whatever floated over Trump’s head at the time to defend his record, place a reporter, or change the chyron. CNN.”
