PRESS SEC: “LAST DAY AS WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL”
by Sharon Rondeau
(Aug. 18, 2017) — 1:15 p.m. – Minutes ago, Sara Carter of Circa News tweeted that White House chief strategist Steven K. Bannon informed her that he resigned his post “two weeks ago.”
Much speculation about Bannon’s future had been expressed over the past several weeks given that he reportedly clashed with the president’s daughter and son-in-law as well as other West Wing staffers.
Carter reported that she and Dan and spoke directly early on Friday afternoon, hence her tweet issued just before 1:00 PM.
A New York Times report issued just prior to Carter’s tweet stated that Bannon would likely leave the White House, according to unnamed “officials” reportedly conveying Trump’s thinking on the matter.
On Monday, terminated White House communications Director Anthony Scaramucci claimed that former White House Chief of Staff Reince Preibus and Bannon were responsible for leaking sensitive and classified information to the press. In a profanity-laden telephone conversation with The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza which Scaramucci claimed he believed was off-the-record, Scaramucci fingered Preibus and Bannon as figures who would soon depart the West Wing.
Prior to joining the 2016 Trump campaign, Bannon was Executive Chairman of Breitbart News. He is a U.S. Navy veteran, former Goldman-Sachs executive, entrepreneur and professional film producer.
Bannon also served as the Trump campaign’s CEO beginning on August 17, 2016.
In remarks made at a Tuesday press conference, Trump indicated that Bannon is a “good person” who has been treated very unfairly by the press.
Since the November 8 election, mainstream media outlets such as The New York Times, Newsweek, The Washington Post, Yahoo! News, The Los Angeles Times, and others have attempted to cast the Trump administration in the worst possible light to the point of making false statements and citing “unnamed officials” almost exclusively.
Bannon co-founded the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) which works to expose corruption and “cronyism” in government.
It is unclear whether Bannon will assume another role inside or outside of the White House.
According to CBS White House correspondent Mark Knoller via White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Friday is Bannon’s “last day as a White House official.”
