Steve Bannon: Take a knee for Trump and thank God he is president
Steve Bannon: Take a knee for Trump and thank God he is president
By Derek Hawkins September 26 at 4:00 AM
Stephen K. Bannon sauntered onto the wooden stage to the roar of applause as the song “Street Fighting Man” by the Rolling Stones roared over the crowd.
The former White House chief strategist was in Fairhope, Ala., campaigning for Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore at a boisterous rally held inside a barn with hay-lined floors on Monday night.
Bannon offered kind words for Moore, a former state judge whose fire-and-brimstone Christianity and anti-establishment rhetoric have earned him hero status among many conservatives. Moore was “righteous,” he assured the audience, and “represents your values.”
But Bannon reserved his most effusive praise for his former boss, President Trump, who has endorsed Moore’s election opponent.
Trump was “one of the most courageous individuals I’ve ever seen” and the “greatest public speaker since William Jennings Bryan,” Bannon gushed, referring to the late populist politician and master orator from Nebraska.
“Every person,” he said, “should get down every night and thank God that Donald Trump is president of the United States.”
The glowing words were, by all appearances, an attempt to ease some tension between Moore supporters and Trump, who has campaigned for the opposing candidate in the special election to fill the Senate seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Just days ago, Trump visited Huntsville, Ala., where he held a rally for Republican Luther Strange, a former state attorney general who was appointed by the Alabama governor. The move rattled many conservatives who view Strange as part of the swamp Trump has vowed to drain. Breitbart News, headed by Bannon, has championed Moore’s candidacy and relentlessly criticized Strange.
The Republican primary will be held Tuesday. Most public polls show Moore with a comfortable edge over Strange.
In his remarks in Huntsville on Friday night, even Trump seemed skeptical about whether endorsing Strange was the right move, as The Washington Post’s Abby Phillip reported.
“I’ll be honest, I might have made a mistake,” the president told the crowd at one point.
“Roy has a very good chance of not winning in the general election,” Trump said. “Roy is going to have a hard time, but I will be backing him if he wins.”
[As Trump campaigns for Strange in Alabama, he expresses some doubts: ‘I might have made a mistake’]
In Fairhope, Bannon and several other right-wing luminaries gathered at the Oak Hollow Farm to give Moore one final boost before Republican voters go to the polls. The guest list included Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson, Brexit leader Nigel Farage and Fox News host Sean Hannity.
Moore spoke as well, saying “God has put me in this election at this time and all of the nation is watching.” He drew loud applause when he pulled a pistol from his pocket in a testament to his stance on gun rights.
When Bannon, the headliner, took the stage, Farage introduced him as the “greatest political thinker and activist in the Western world today.”
Unshaven and clad in an casual jacket, Bannon portrayed the race between Moore and Strange as a battle for “sovereignty in America.” He declared war on the Republican establishment, saying Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and the “permanent political class” were “the most corrupt and incompetent group of individuals in this country.”
“They think you’re a pack of morons,” he thundered to the tightly packed audience. “They think you’re nothing but rubes. They have no interest at all in what you have to say, what you have to think or what you want to do.”
He warned McConnell and Republican strategists who had backed Strange that their “day of reckoning is coming.” McConnell, he added, owned Strange “lock, stock and barrel.”
Then he turned to the president.
“We did not come here to defy Donald Trump,” Bannon said. “We came here to praise and honor him.”
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