Just as it did with former Bush advisor Karl Rove, Democrats and left-leaning activists are moving fast to demonize Trump strategist Stephen Bannon and use him as fundraising bait.
The latest example is MoveOn.org which has rolled out an anti-Bannon fundraising petition.
In it, the group warned that Bannon was somehow taking over national security. Trump recently added his advisor, a retired naval officer who was a special assistant to the chief of naval operations in the Pentagon, to the National Security Council.
Military Times quoted a former admiral calling Bannon “a pretty extraordinary guy.” Retired Rear Adm. Edward Masso, the former head of the Navy Personnel Command, who served with Bannon, told the paper, “He’s very good at multitasking, and he can do amazing things. He was absolutely a good sailor and naval officer.”
But to the left, Bannon’s past as the conservative Breitbart News boss stands out and they are seizing on it to raise cash.
The MoveOn.org petition, for example, paints him as an extremist:
“Donald Trump’s decision to seat right-wing white nationalist Steve Bannon on the National Security Council, while downgrading the standing of our military and intelligence leaders, is dangerous for America and the world. Congress must be a check on this dangerous politicization of our nation’s security and immediately act to keep Steve Bannon off the National Security Council.”
But just as the left tried to undermine Rove, White House insiders say that the attacks on Bannon are not landing, and if anything bolstering his position.
Still, it’s whipping up MoveOn supporters. The latest update of the petition said it has 165,241 signatures.
It also seeks a $5 monthly donation. That would suggest a total pot of $10 million a year.
Want to support our work? The MoveOn community will work every moment, day by day and year by year, to resist Trump’s agenda, contain the damage, defeat hate with love, and begin the process of swinging the nation’s pendulum back toward sanity, decency, and the kind of future that we must never give up on. And to do it we need your ongoing support, now more than ever. Will you stand with us?
Yes, I’ll chip in $5 a month.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
