Steve Bannon celebrated his newfound freedom after being released from prison Tuesday by pushing new conspiracies about the upcoming election.
The former Donald Trump White House adviser, who was freed after serving a four-month sentence on contempt charges for defying a subpoena from the House Jan. 6 committee, claimed on his first War Room podcast since his release that Democrats and other “radicals” in the media “have no intention of giving up power.” The 70-year-old also encouraged viewers to “make sure” their political opponents “cannot steal the election.”
Bannon was convicted in 2022 on two counts of contempt of Congress, one concerning his refusal to give a deposition to the Jan. 6 committee and another for declining to hand over documents relating to his involvement in Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
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On his War Room show, Bannon painted himself as a “political prisoner” who had been persecuted by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in an effort to stifle his influence. He claimed Pelosi “sent me to a federal prison as a political prisoner to do two things”: firstly to “tamp down the power of this show” and secondly “to break me.” Bannon was convicted by a jury and sentenced by a judge.
“Nancy Pelosi, take out your No. 2 pencil and write this down,” Bannon said. “This show has never been more powerful. The voices behind it have never been more powerful. The audience has never been more powerful. And we’re going to deliver a knockout blow to your progressive insanity on Nov. 5, and then we’re going to secure the deal after that.”
Bannon went on to claim that he’d been “empowered” by his time behind bars.
“I am more energized and more focused than I have ever been in my entire life,” Bannon said. “And I can see clearly—just like in 2016 and in 2020—exactly what’s going on here, and what we have to do to defeat it.”
To defeat the conspiracy, Bannon told his audience, it’s essential to vote for Trump in battleground states. “We have to put this beyond their ability to steal it,” he said. Bannon later added: “On Nov. 5, we have to crush them at the ballot box.”
Every day after Election Day, Bannon claimed, “is going to be Stalingrad,” claiming election lawyer Marc Elias and others will be in court attempting to overturn the result. “If they can’t take it away from Trump, if they can’t nullify it right there… They want to at least delegitimize his victory.”
Bannon also spoke about Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden over the weekend, claiming that critics were trying to “besmirch” the event because of “one influencer’s throwaway, not funny line,” referring to comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s racist joke about Puerto Rico.
