Who is this guy Steve Bannon? Since he was tapped to lead Donald Trump’s presidential campaign about a week ago, information has come to light that make one wonder what Trump was thinking.
Voter Fraud: Bannon Makes It Real
The Guardian reported on August 26 that Stephen Bannon was registered to vote at an address in Miami, Florida. What’s interesting about that? First, he doesn’t live there. In fact, no one lives there. The home is vacant and is scheduled for demolition. The problem is that Florida law requires voters to register using their address of legal residence.
Actually, Bannon has never lived in this home. He rented it for the use of an ex-wife, Diane Clohesy. And before this Miami address, from 2013 to 2015, Bannon rented another home in Miami for Clohesy’s use. He never lived there either, but he was registered to vote there, the Guardian says. Since the story broke, the Guardian reports, Bannon has changed his voter registration to another location in Florida where Breitbart colleague Andy Badolato lives.
He’s the Person He Warned Us Against
The other reason that Bannon’s voter registration is interesting is that he has published articles decrying voter fraud by members of minority groups who do not live at the addresses where they register. In this story, he alleged that a union official who lived in California voted in Wisconsin’s June 5, 2012 recall election. The story details the permanence of the move and argues that the vote was unlawful because the voter had moved to California in March to take the position with the union.
Shortly before the 2012 general election, Bannon published another story claiming that nonresidents from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) were arriving in Wisconsin and registering to vote even though they actually lived in other states. In a third story, he claimed credit for persuading state officials to investigate the SEIU registrations.
So, rules apply to the opposition, but not to him? How convenient.
Domestic Violence
It’s a shame. It happened 20 years ago, in 1996, but it’s still a shame. The police were called to the Santa Monica home where Bannon lived with his then wife and infant twins. The report states that Bannon grabbed his wife by the neck and that the officer saw red marks. Criminal charges against Bannon were dropped after the witness became unavailable. More details of the incident and the reason the witness was unavailable were reported in the New York Post.
Is the selection of Bannon the death knell for the Trump campaign? Will his past record of antisemitism, the alleged domestic violence, or the new voter fraud accusations, cause the Trump campaign to fold under the stress of this added negativity? Or will it be just another boost for the campaign that shouldn’t be?
