would be effective october 31st, 2011, and that they would be, quote, placed on a wait list to be refunded on a first resign, first refunded basis. steve bannon told the mueller team i can t believe we re talking about this, but we have to. the president said making it sound as if it s this clash of titans. he told the president this was not a conflict of interest, and to claim so would be, and i m quoting bannon now, ridiculous and petty. in other words, his own chief strategist at the time thought the president was reaching, and now he seems to have built it into some kind of boardroom clash of the titans. the real question tonight, though, is why so angry? don t we remember a time when he and his people were pleased as punch with the special counsel s work? i think everyone here and everyone frankly across america was happy. the mueller investigation is the gold standard. the mueller report was great. it could not have been better. it said no obstruction, no collusion. it
discloses it fully in footnote 529 of his report on page 80, volume 2, in case you re following at home. safe to say it s not what the president makes it out to be. quote, in october 2011, mueller resigned his family s membership from trump national golf club in sterling, virginia in a letter that noted, quote, we live in the district and find that we are unable to make full use of the club, and that inquired whether we would be entitled to a refund of a portion of our initial membership fee which was paid in 1994. about two weeks later the control other telephone club responded that the muellers resignation would be effective october 31st, 2011, and that they would be, quote, placed on a wait list to be refunded on a first resign, first refunded basis. steve bannon told the mueller team i can t believe we re talking about this, but we have to. the president said making it sound as if it s this clash of titans. he told the president this was not a conflict of interest, and to clai
fair enough, that s bannon and trump versus the gop. now, bannon is turning on trump. something that s been forgotten, george, remember, before this book came out, bannon had talked to vanity fair and said, i may run for president in 2020 if donald trump chooses not to run. what you have as a prospect is you ve got more than one, quote, conservative republican party. you got the gop, you ve got bannon and his insurgents and trump and whoever is around. and the question really, the people who follow steve bannon will they likely follow the president of the united states if he turns the corner to run again. that will be the question we ll see. scott lucas, appreciate having you. see you again back in the united kin kingdom. thank you. still to come on cnn newsroom, an exquisite interview with u.s. secretary of state rex tillerson, how he says
that is as damaging as any information alleged of collusion and trump officials. let s talk about the chief strategist again, steve bannon quoted throughout the book. you mentioned the quote about the meeting being treasonous. that infamous meeting between trump officials and the russian attorney at trump tower. also quoting bannon, about the president in that book saying he s lost his stuff. bannon has not walked away from any of this. he s not refuted any of this. how does this play out, this rift between the president of the united states and steve bannon? it s not just a two-way rift, george. the significant thing is we ve got a three-way rift. remember, when steve bannon left or was forced out of the white house in august, he declared #war on the republican establishment. leaders like mitch mcconnell in the senate. when bannon did that, he said, oh, i m doing it for donald trump. i m doing it for his policies.
that gives you coverage here, here and here. and it even let s you take a timeout. nooooooo! yes! amazing speed, coverage and control. all with an xfi gateway. if mueller was looking at your finances or your family finances unrelated to russia, is that a red line? would that be a breach of what his actual charge is? i would say yeah. i would say yes. one of the many remarkable claims in the book is steve bannon claiming he tore into donald trump for that comment to the new york times. quoting bannon, i went right to him and said why did you say that? why did you say it was off limits to go after your family s