There is no doubt that the election of Alabama’s first Democratic senator in 25-years, is a devastating blow to Breitbart supporter Steve Bannon. The first year of Donald Trump as president was a resounding signal to the world that extremist alt-right politicians were well on their way to seizing government power. That was until the Deep State establishment that Bannon and Trump claimed to be fighting ended up protecting their reign in August when establishment figures officially rejected Bannon and his extremists.
https://www.liberalamerica.org/2017/12/13/watch-steve-bannon-walk-shame-following-defeat-roy-moore/
Republican establishment taking action against Bannon
With the special election in Alabama, many feared that Bannon’s influence and support for Roy Moore would have confirmed him as a more relevant influencer of conservative politics. The New York Times reported that last week, Bannon was among a small group of conservative leaders who assembled at the Trump International Hotel in D.C. He said that his conservatives needed to stop playing “footsie” with the establishment and added that members of the establishment generally just “pat you on your head and send you on your way.”
The Times article pointed to Scott W. Reed who is a chief political strategist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, who said that Bannon’s money needed to dry up. The Times suggested Reed’s organization was a pillar of the Republican establishment that Bannon claims to loathe adding that top Republicans were calling donors nationwide to persuade them to not donate to Bannon.
Scott Reed of the US Chamber of Commerce wanted to remind Bannon "who's in charge" by defeating Moore. Well I guess now we know who is. pic.twitter.com/M87QlkU4Z9
— Philippe Lemoine (@phl43) September 28, 2017
Reed also said that a wedge needed to driven between Bannon and Trump, who apparently calls the Breitbart CEO regularly. Reed hopes this can be done by painting Bannon as a loser as Trump seems to be more interested in supporting “winners.”
Bannon still “wins”
To many, Roy Moore’s loss is also Bannon’s loss. But Bannon claimed that he was playing the long game after Moore was defeated on Tuesday, saying that a single defeat would not derail him from his goal. At the same time, he also said that Roy Moore might not have been the right candidate to push economic nationalism. He also blamed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Republicans who didn’t vote for Moore who cast write-in ballots instead. Even with this, he claimed that those same votes were still victories for his base.
Bannon hopes to take the fact that Doug Jones won to make it look that McConnell pushed for a Democrat by not supporting Moore. The lack of support by McConnell, however, was not very clear despite the allegations against the Alabama Republican candidate of sexual misconduct and pedophilia. When the news reports were first circulating, McConnell himself had said that if the allegations were true that Moore should consider removing himself from the race. The Republican National Committee withdrew from a joint fundraising agreement they had with Moore. But Republicans overall made no effort to stop the candidate and allowed him the chance to win.
https://www.liberalamerica.org/2017/11/19/republican-senator-caught-hot-mic-calling-gop-toast-video/
As Bannon said that he would play the long-game, he still seems determined to be seen as the chief strategist who holds the cards, saying that he would push on his message for economic nationalism in other states for the coming mid-terms. One former Trump campaign official said that they had to learn from the Alabama election that they can’t afford to lose Republican seats over bad candidates, which suggests he was referring to Moore. This, however, still didn’t stop the administration from spinning the Republican candidate’s reputation in a more “favorable” light prior to election night. Even President Trump said that voting for Moore was better than electing a Democrat to the Senate.
Trump and Bannon take different roads
Even though Bannon remains adamant about pushing his candidates for 2018, journalists and pundits predict that President Trump is likely to submit to establishment Republicans and away from Bannonism, in order to ensure that Republicans continue to hold power in both congressional chambers. In fact, former campaign manager and chief of staff for Mitch McConnell, Josh Holmes has said that it was imperative that both the Senate GOP and Trump’s White House be on the same page.
Trump backed Luther Strange, and he went down; then backed his bird-of-a-feather friend Roy Moore, and he just went down. Don’t fear these people. They are beatable.
— Keith Ellison (@keithellison) December 13, 2017
Prior to Roy Moore’s campaign for the U.S. Senate seat, President Trump was public about his support for Luther Strange which confused many because many thought that Bannon’s support for Moore would have been the natural go-to for Trump. It was later learned that McConnell and even Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner convinced Trump to support Strange. His loss during the primaries to Moore was seen as an embarrassment to Trump and there were reports that he was livid with McConnell and his own aides. Another loss with Moore could be interpreted by Trump, either way.
One administration official has said that these losses are an example of why and when the President should refrain from engaging in contested elections. In the coming months, the seats for Senators Jeff Flake (AZ) and Dean Heller (NV) are up for election, two senators who have already clashed with the President, and have to deal with Bannon’s looming support for his candidates. Mississippi, Nebraska, and Wyoming are also some of the states on the map that will be fought over using the lessons learned from the Alabama special election.
[Featured image manipulated by @JonMarkDraws from images by Laszlo Bartha/Don Irvine, Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0]
