Former White House chief strategist and conservative podcast host Steve Bannon has released a statement after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
Bannon is currently serving a four-month sentence handed down after he was found guilty of contempt of Congress for failing to respond to a subpoena by the House Select Committee investigating the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
He gave his statement on Saturday following the attempt on Trump’s life from a federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut, to the conservative outlet The National Pulse.
Bannon said: “I’ve warned about this very thing for over a year—an assassination attempt—the threat is real, very real. Thankfully, President Trump wears the Armor of God. Today, our leader showed total command presence, stood tall, and said ‘FIGHT’!”
Trump was speaking at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, when a bullet hit his ear. Former firefighter Corey Comperatore, 50, was killed in the shooting. Two other attendees were injured.
The FBI identified the shooter as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, who was killed by Secret Service agents.
Bannon, who was the host of the War Room podcast before he went to prison, has several times said there was a threat of violence against Trump, blaming without evidence what he calls the “administrative state and their deep state apparatus.”
In May this year, Bannon discussed how he and others had been criticized for calling the FBI raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in August 2022, an “assassination attempt” on Infowars‘ The Alex Jones Show, run by notorious conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
On May 28, Bannon said: “[The FBI] wanted somebody to bleed out. This entire thing was thought through, in a high level of detail—and they weren’t absolutely sure Trump wasn’t going to be there. Remember, those kind of decisions by Trump are at the last minute… They were looking to have a confrontation that would be an armed confrontation.”
In August 2022, Bannon had said following the raid that recovered boxes full of classified documents that were being held by the former president: “I do not think it’s beyond this administrative state and their deep state apparatus to actually try to work on the assassination of President Trump—everything is on the table.”
The May 28 statement followed Trump’s claim on his Truth Social website that the DOJ “AUTHORIZED THE FBI TO USE DEADLY (LETHAL) FORCE” during the operation. A court filling was unsealed in May showing briefing notes for the Mar-a-Lago raid, which said: “Law enforcement officers of the Department of Justice may use deadly force when necessary.”
The FBI later issued a statement which said: “The FBI followed standard protocol in this search as we do for all search warrants, which includes a standard policy statement limiting the use of deadly force. No one ordered additional steps to be taken and there was no departure from the norm in this matter.”
After Saturday’s assassination attempt over the weekend, President Joe Biden said: “There is no place in America for this kind of violence — for any violence. Ever. Period. No exception. We can’t allow this violence to be normalized.”
Trump posted on Truth Social: “At this moment, it is more important than ever that we stand United, and show our True Character as Americans, remaining Strong and Determined, and not allowing Evil to Win.”
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