White House chief strategist Steve Bannon defended his controversial interview with a liberal magazine Thursday, saying it took the focus off of President Trump following his remarks on the violence in Charlottesville, Va., and shifted the media’s narrative.

Bannon had a wide-ranging discussion with a writer for the American Prospect, a liberal magazine, during which he said there was no “military solution” to North Korea’s nuclear development, and that “they got us.” During the conversation, which Bannon said he didn’t know was on-the-record, the White House chief strategist said “the economic war with China is everything.”