Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon was not very talkative when he used to attend meetings at the Pentagon.
Reporters asked Mattis at a press gaggle on Thursday what role Bannon played in the issues he’s concerned with, and if he was involved in matters related to the Pentagon or was a key person Mattis interacted with during his tenure at the White House.
“My responsibility is to the president. He [Bannon] was at two meetings that I recall, here,” Mattis said. “I don’t recall him — I’m almost certain he never said a word in either one of those meetings. I don’t think he was one of the discussants in either one of those meetings. I know I’m right about one of them, and I’m 99 percent certain that I’m right about the other one.”
Mattis’ comments come after the White House distanced itself from Bannon on Wednesday, following the publication of excerpts Wednesday from a forthcoming book, “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House” by Michael Wolff. The excerpts featured unflattering comments from Bannon about Trump’s family, and the White House fired back.
Trump fired back, saying Bannon had “nothing to do with me or my presidency. When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind.”
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders on Wednesday pushed back against some of the allegations made in the book and called it “trashy tabloid fiction.” Sanders also said Thursday that Breitbart should “consider” severing ties with Bannon.
