Conservative applause is building for President-elect Trump’s choice of combative Stephen K. Bannon as his senior counselor and chief “whisperer” for the tens of millions who flooded into the polling booths on Election Day.
While the mainstream media, liberals and some establishment Republicans have whacked Bannon’s past control of Breitbart News and sometimes incendiary rhetoric, advocates of Trump’s promise to shake up Washington see Bannon as their representative.
The Bannon-priebus team is a tremendous choice by President elect Trump. Bannon for key strategies,priebus for daily management. great team
— Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) November 13, 2016
“The naming of Steve Bannon as counselor to the president and chief strategist is a good omen,” two time presidential candidate and author Patrick J. Buchanan told Secrets.
“It shows that Donald Trump rewards loyalty, is unintimidated by political correctness, and recognizes that populism and America First nationalism are indispensable elements of the Republican Party of the future,” said Buchanan.
Conservative pioneer Richard Viguerie called Bannon “indepensible” who “will do more than balance” the mainstream Republicans likely to join the Trump White House. “I hope he is just the first of many,” Viguerie told Secrets. He added that Bannon will be a “watchdog” on, and balance to incoming chief of staff Reince Priebus, the Republican Party chairman.
“It’s at this point that conservatives normally begin losing faith, watching the Republican president-elect reach out to do-nothing moderates to guide his administration,” said Media Research Center founder Brent Bozell. “With Bannon as chief strategist, the revolution continues. And that is good,” he said, also adding praise for Priebus as White House chief of staff.
One of the nation’s preeminent biographers of Ronald Reagan, Craig Shirley, said, “Steve Bannon is a friend and a great patriot. He is at the vanguard of history and not the smear merchant bystanders of the corrupt liberal media.” His colleague at the public affairs firm Shirley & Banister and the group Citizens for the Republic, Diana Banister, added, “Bravo Breitbart’s Steve Bannon, friend to the forgotten man, brilliant political strategist with the tenacity and genius to drain the swamp!”
Critics of Steve Bannon know he’s smarter and tougher than they are. When CAIR doesn’t like you that is a good thing. Bannon a good guy
— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) November 14, 2016
Republican strategist Ron Bonjean added that Bannon’s place as Trump’s top counselor means that the voices of the president-elect’s supporters will be heard and championed.
“While Bannon has his share of detractors, he will try to be the ‘Trump Whisperer’ keeping in contact with the 60 million who voted for Trump, keeping them thinking he’s the outsider while working inside the system,” said Bonjean, co-founder of Rokk Solutions public affairs.
Another strategist and former Bush administration official Mark Corallo, credited Bannon, Priebus and campaign manager Kellyanne Conway and advisor David Bossie for Trump’s win and outreach to voters beyond the Beltway.
And instead of having a team of rivals, like Bush did, Trump needs loyalty and unity to move fast to change Washington, said Corallo, of Corallo Media Strategies.
“Bannon, Bossie and Conway all possess the outsider mentality and are true movement conservatives. They know that the insider way of operating is what broke the Republican Party and the country,” he said, adding, “They have one common purpose – serve America by serving President Trump. Their instincts and patriotism match their president’s. They will fiercely protect him and his interests from the usual insider poison.”
And you can add to that list Vice President-elect Mike Pence, the Indiana governor who led outsiders by example when he was a former House leader and is the new administration’s outreach representative to evangelicals and Christians.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
