second, the russia investigation. trump is deeply unnerved by the fact this is clouding his administration. and in bannon s remarks he seams to give legitimacy to the claim that don junior told his father about this meeting with the russians. and of course that is something trump has vigorously denied and insisted is in fact fake news, a phony made up story. robert costa, let me get your insight on the tone and tenor and ferocity of the statement. the tone was dialled back. i think both of your newspapers have reported this, that there was an original version that was much harsher and that was the president s desire. what do you make of the president s statement, essentially calling steve bannon crazy and again seeking to diminish the role of someone who was at one time one of the most powerful white house aides? based on my reporting it was totally in character, but also
that s someone bob mueller is going to want to talk to. if he hasn t already. and when you look at the rivalries, the fact you have people on the president s team talking about each other, disparaging each other, disparaging the president, they clearly are not all pulling in the same direction. michael wolff, all he was doing was going around asking questions. he has none of the investigative techniques that bob mueller and his team will have to find out what really happened. jeremy bash, let me bring you in on three pretty big schemes. money laundering well let s just start there. one of the bannon quotes that got a lot of attention and people are still talking about is this one. steve bannon seemed to
it will be harder if he doesn t have the cash behind him. gene, you are always right. we just picked this up from breitbart news tonight. take a listen. let s talk about it on the other side. first of all, i think trump made a huge mistake, steve, bashing you like he did today on twitter. that was devastating to me. i hope in the future you can forgive him for that when we come to 2020, because i m sure he s going to need your help. the president of the united states is a great man. you know i support him day in and day out. going over the country, giving the trump miracle speech. i don t think you have to worry about that, but i appreciate the kind words. so, eugene, you accurately predicted the breakup record division of assets, and breitbart still loves steve bannon. i guess i d be a good divorce lawyer. but to your larger point, the trump base loved the bannon stuff. i ve been out interviewing them, they loved the idea of getting out of nafta, they wanted economic and n
fire jim comey, donald trump, we don t know if he entered the white house with any criminal liability. whatever happened during campaign, whether there was conspiracy, whether he was involved in it or not, that s still being investigated, but we do know he brought criminal liability on himself through his actions, nut just to fire jim comey but to intervene in that investigation, to ask jim comey to back off, to ask members of the intelligence community to get the fbi to get the fbi to back off. there s this pattern that led to him becoming under investigation for obstruction of justice that he brought completely on himself apparently against the advice of steve bannon as he very clearly wants to let us know. nicole, i think that s important where. bannon is going to be most credible as you referenced earlier is on the decisions the president made as president in his removal of jim comey from the leadership of the fbi when comey was investigating the president. because, of course, in
michael wolf also writes about steve bannon s relationship with jared kushner. quote, bannon did all he could to rollover priebus and kushner in an effort to prosecute the war for trumpism, bannonism. kushner on one of the steepest learning curves in the history of politics and also exhibiting a painfully naivety was advocating doing nothing fast and everything in moderation. and wolf also describes how bannon viewed trump as he campaigned for the white house. quote, donald trump was a setup, and early in the 2016 race trump became the breitbart podem. indeed bannon began to suggest to people that he like ales had been at fox, was the true force behind his candidate. today the president responded with this statement. quote, steve bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency. when he was fired he not only