Steve Bannon was released from federal prison around 3 a.m. Tuesday. Seven hours later, he was alive in his own The War Room podcast “full of shit” one week before the presidential election.
Flooding the place with shit is Bannon’s oft-quoted definition of his media strategy: to whip so many lies or half-truths into the stratosphere that it’s hard to draw the line between fact and fiction.
“I’m stronger and more focused than I’ve ever been in my entire life,” Bannon said in a statement The War Room broadcast on the Rumble, which garnered over 100,000 live viewers at one time. “Four months in a state prison not only broke me, it gave me strength.”
Bannon, 70, a friend and former strategist of Donald Trump, spent four months in a suburban jail in Danbury, Connecticut, for contempt after he defied a subpoena for a congressional investigation into the January 6 Capitol violence.
Bannon has cast himself as a martyr-like figure for the January 6 riots and, like Trump, is unfairly persecuted by the same brutal forces he faces next week in the election.
On air Tuesday, and later in a press conference, Bannon repeatedly suggested that former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi send him to prison because he wants to curb his influence.
“If you are not ready to be sent to a federal prison as a political prisoner, you are not ready to be in this movement,” he said. “You have to understand, they want to put you in jail, they will put you in jail. If you can’t accept that then you don’t know what they stand for.”
Bannon’s return to the public sphere also means the return of a big mouth to fuel an election fraud conspiracy that has become rampant online. And Bannon got right down to business, telling a story to his audience of Democrats planning to revolt in the 2024 election.
“Every day after November 5 will be Stalingrad,” Bannon said. “If they can’t get rid of Trump, if they can’t get rid of him right there, they want to at least legitimize his victory.”
“They will do anything to stop President Trump,” Bannon continued. “That’s the truth.”
A 2023 Brookings study on disinformation in political podcasts pointed to Bannon’s The War Room as a great propagator of lies and unsubstantiated claims; about one-fifth of all articles examined by researchers were determined to be false claims flagged by fact-finders such as Snopes and Politifact.
“If Pelosi’s efforts succeed, you better be prepared to go to federal prison,” Bannon said. “Because these people have no qualms about arming the justice system, arming the legal system, against Americans with different political views.”
His fans seem happy that he is back. “God Bless Steve’ Get Out The Bannon Sledge Hammer, And Start Smashing The TRAITORS,” one viewer wrote during Tuesday’s live stream.
“Welcome back Steve, we need our leader,” wrote another. “Give us our marching orders and do this.”
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