There is simply no reason for the political Right to continue its embrace of Steve Bannon. The former Breitbart chief, who served a brief stint in President Donald Trump’s White House in 2017, has demonstrated levels of corruption and misjudgment that should end his political ambitions and influence within the Republican Party.
Revelations regarding the latest tranche of so-called “Epstein files” are still surfacing, but the contents have been damaging for wealthy and powerful politicians and business leaders both in the United States and abroad. Not all alleged friends of Epstein were implicated. Despite the Left’s hopes to the contrary, Trump has emerged largely unscathed as documents show the president supported the prosecution of his onetime acquaintance Jeffrey Epstein. “Thank goodness you’re stopping him, everyone has known he’s been doing this,” Trump allegedly told the Palm Beach Police chief. Trump also described Epstein’s girlfriend and accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, as an “operative” who is “evil.”
Bannon has not been implicated in the sort of sexual impropriety linked to figures such as Bill Gates, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly Prince Andrew, and Peter Mandelson. But his connection to Epstein is disturbing in its own right. Bannon began a sustained relationship with Epstein in 2017, shortly after being fired by Trump. In 2018 and 2019, over a decade after Epstein’s conviction on state charges in Florida for soliciting prostitution and soliciting prostitution from a minor, as a part of the controversial “deal of the century” plea deal that allowed the disgraced financier to avoid federal charges, Bannon spent significant time with Epstein at his Manhattan townhouse and at Epstein’s residence in Paris, filming what Bannon later described as a documentary project. The 15 hours of footage have never been released, but documents show that Bannon was attempting to rehab the image of the registered sex offender, offering Epstein advice on how to handle scrutiny from the media. In return, Epstein advised Bannon on political matters. The two met and corresponded regularly until right before Epstein’s arrest on federal charges in 2019, shortly before his death.
However you feel about Bannon’s 2020 arrest for allegedly defrauding donors in the “We Build the Wall” online fundraising racket, and his subsequent pardon by Trump in 2021, it is worth noting that the ultra-nationalist Bannon, who has built a career railing against the “elites,” was arrested on a luxury yacht owned by billionaire Chinese dissident Geo Wengui (Miles Guo.) Guo, who claimed to be a whistleblower against the Chinese Communist Party, has funded many of Bannon’s projects since 2017. The two have traveled together extensively and have appeared together in multiple media appearances. In 2023, Guo was arrested and charged with multiple counts of fraud and illegal fundraising. He was convicted in 2024, and sentencing is scheduled for later this year.
Bannon’s decision to befriend and do business, including entering into lucrative partnerships, with a foreign billionaire accused and later convicted of fraud, and to offer advice and counsel to perhaps the Western world’s most notorious sex criminal, paints the picture of a man willing to do just about anything to gain wealth and political influence.
HOWARD LUTNICK DOWNPLAYS EPSTEIN RELATIONS: ‘BARELY HAD ANYTHING TO DO WITH THAT PERSON’
Unfortunately, conservative pundits and influencers, including those with a history of exhaustive coverage of the “Epstein files,” continue to appear on Bannon’s War Room podcast. Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) appeared on the show earlier this month, and FBI Director Kash Patel has served as Bannon’s guest host before entering government. Why? It’s unclear. There are certainly more influential MAGA-affiliated voices in the media. There are podcasts with a much larger reach than War Room. And there are figures who espouse the same nationalistic, postliberal policies who never palled around with a pedophile or took large bags of cash from a Chinese fraudster.
“Sloppy Steve,” as the president calls him, is a liability to the Right and should be treated as such.
Brady Leonard (@bradyleonard) is a musician, political strategist, and host of The No Gimmicks Podcast.
