Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon said Thursday that President Donald Trump, who likely expects to be impeached in the House, wants more than just an acquittal in the Senate — he wants total exoneration from any wrongdoing.
“You have a total united Republican Party now that agrees that there was nothing wrong with this call (with the Ukrainian president). In fact, this is what he was hired by the American people to do,” Bannon explained. “And I think this is all a show trial now in the House; it’s a foregone conclusion. The action moves to the Senate and I think the fundamental decision that is for the president to make is between an acquittal … and exoneration.
Bannon, also the former head of far-right Breitbart News, said an exoneration means a full Senate trial and not just a dog-and-pony show like we’ve seen with the House Democrats, who made up their minds to impeach Trump long ago.
“I think that the president of the United States is not going to look for just some simple acquittal, he’s got the votes,” Bannon said. “He’s going to look to be exonerated. He believes, and I think his followers believe, and now all of the Republican Party believes that what he did was correct, this is what he was hired to do, and he needs to be exonerated, not just acquitted by some majority vote.”
Bannon went on to call House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., a “master political strategist” who ultimately succumbed to calls from her base, which has been itching for Trump’s impeachment since before he was even elected.
And to Bannon, impeachment simply doesn’t mean much to that many Americans, most of which care more about jobs and the economy than they do Trump’s faults and weaknesses as a person.
“Besides people who are political junkies, I think most of America is kind of dialed out. And they’ve dialed out because they don’t see it affecting their lives,” he explained. “What they see as affecting their lives is the jobs numbers from last week. And where Nancy Pelosi has really messed up is that, holding the USMCA (trade agreement) to right after you (move to) impeach him I think signals that this thing has been on your desk for one year, and we lost one year of the benefit to the American people.”
Bannon Praises ‘Liberal’ Jim Cramer for Supporting Trump on Trade
Also on Thursday, CNBC “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer thanked Bannon for praising his remarks this week that the economy is strong enough for Trump to walk away from the Chinese regarding a new trade deal.
Thank you Steve Bannon for acknowledging my "walk away" position on China–economy is strong enough to walk away… and win!
— Jim Cramer (@jimcramer) December 12, 2019
Bannon said “I like quoting a liberal Democrat, some guy named Jim Cramer” during his appearance on “Squawk Box.”
Cramer said he indeed has “historically” been a Democrat while arguing that his stance on Trump regarding the trade war has been consistent, and he thinks the president is doing the right thing regarding changing China’s behavior — unless he caves and makes a deal.
“What really matters here to me is trying to bring jobs back. I never thought that was a right-wing issue. So it was a left-wing issue that the right has kind of grudgingly adopted because the right wants profits for companies,” Cramer explained. “So I thank Steve Bannon for recognizing that this is a position that is not a left or right issue. It’s an issue about bringing jobs back and taking jobs away from those who took them away from us and debased our American workers.”
As far as the trade war with China, Trump tweeted yet again Thursday that a deal is “VERY close,” which we’ve heard a million times already from all sides of the tiff.
Getting VERY close to a BIG DEAL with China. They want it, and so do we!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2019
To which Cramer was actually a bit disappointed.
“Kind of, yeah,” Cramer said. “When are you going to take them on?”