Do Breitbart Readers Want to Be Steve Bannon's Army?
Just about two weeks ago, a newly fired Steve Bannon was "jacked up," feeling "free," excited to have his "hands back on [his] weapons" – meaning Breitbart, where he chaired an editorial meeting just a few hours after losing his job. "Someone said, 'it's Bannon the Barbarian,'" Bannon recalled to the conservative Weekly Standard. "I am definitely going to crush the opposition. There's no doubt. I built a fucking machine at Breitbart ... and we're about to rev that machine up."
Throughout his tenure as Trump's chief strategist, Bannon was credited as the "keeper of the base" – the "defender" of their interests inside the White House. Part of why he survived as long as he did in the Trump administration was, at least according to reports published before his ouster, out of fear he would do exactly what he seemed to be threatening: use his influence at Breitbart against Trump, further thinning what little support the president had left.
In interviews and emails obtained last week by a Bannon impersonator, Breitbart's editors indicated they were ready to use the site to do "dirty work" on Bannon's behalf. "#WAR," one editor tweeted shortly after the news of Bannon's firing broke. Another told Vanity Fair Bannon wanted to "beat ... into submission" his White House rivals' ideas. The same article included an even more explicit threat from an unnamed high-level staffer: "we're prepared to help Paul Ryan rally votes for impeachment" if Trump strays too far from the Bannon-era Breitbart ideals that put him in office, the person said.
But for all of the bluster that accompanied Bannon's triumphant return to Breitbart, he may have oversold his ability to marshal Breitbart readers into an army ready to go to #war with his rivals over old grudges. So far, at least, they don't seem to be biting.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/do-breitbart-readers-want-to-be-steve-bannons-army-w500061?utm_source=rsnewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=daily&utm_campaign=083017_16
= new reply since forum marked as read
