'Breitbart News Sunday' Special: JFK, Conservative?

On Sunday night, the scintillating special edition of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot channel 125 was devoted to the 50^th anniversary of the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Breitbart News Executive Chairman and host Stephen K. Bannon drew out stories from his guests about the life and death of JFK.

First up was former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. In her book, Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas, which Bannon refers to as a deeply religious one, Palin assailed the left and the secularists of America. She said that they are doing all they can to strip American culture of its symbols of Christmas. Palin posited that this whitewashing of Christmas is the “tip of a spear” of a much larger war of eradicating America’s fundamental Judeo-Christian values. Citing founding father John Adams, Palin made her point that the left ignores that “the Constitution was designed for a moral and religious person.” Bannon made sure Palin shared the segment in her book about her Orwellian vision of America in 2028 where the government constantly reminds us that the “government know best.”

Bannon and Palin both have children defending freedom while serving in our Armed Services. Palin said that she feels proud and “sacrificial” because her first son serves in combat. The Governor went on to thank all at Breitbart News for promoting American exceptionalism. She stated, “As we lose more freedoms we will fundamentally transform” America to a place that is not exceptional. 

The Governor offered her insights into the JFK years, praising the former President because he “believed in personal freedom, and was bold to talk about scripture and the Judeo-Christian ethic.” He also showed imagination with his decision to promote our space program, the former Alaska Governor noted. She drew a comparison to Obama, saying that our current President lacked Kennedy’s leadership. 

Next on the program was Ira Stoll, who discussed his new book JFK, Conservative. Convincingly, Stoll argued that Kennedy’s “New Frontier,” touted by liberals as a promise for new spending on education and more medical care for the elderly, was in fact a conservative thrust. He supported tax reduction and an increase in military spending. What’s more, Stoll insisted Kennedy’s social agenda was conservative as well. Kennedy supported capital punishment, restricted the welfare state,and emphasized creating jobs in private industry.

A vigorous Cold War warrior, Stoll claimed, Kennedy was first to call out communism as the evil empire in his famous speech in Germany in 1963. Stoll noted the reference in a speech that shows Kennedy knew about the intrinsic evils of the communist takeover of Germany:

There are many people in the world who really don’t understand, or say they don’t, what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world. Let them come to Berlin. There are some who say that communism is the wave of the future. Let them come to Berlin.

Stoll said that, if President Obama lived by “ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country,” his entire political platform would be invalidated.

Also on the show was Dan Bongino, who authored the book Life Inside the Bubble. A former Secret Service Agent for President George W. Bush and currently a candidate for Congress in Maryland, Bongino fleshed out what it is like to be a secret service agent living inside the “bubble,” an alternate reality of the President and the many staffers who surround him. He offered insight as to how Kennedy’s agents were affected by the assassination. He brought to light the fact that the assassination and all the mistakes were recorded on TV for the first time. Of course, all prior presidential assassinations were during the pre-TV era. 

Joining next was Jeffrey Scott Shapiro, a Washington Times contributor and protégé of Gerald Posner, author of Case Closed. He asserted that Oswald was the sole killer of Kennedy. Shapiro said in order to understand that Lee Harvey Oswald was the “lone gunman” you have to know the man. Shapiro related that Oswald had been professionally analyzed as a schizophrenic personality and was lost in a delusional world with strong admiration for the Russian Army. It is a fact, said Shapiro, that Oswald had previously tried to kill US Major General Walker before he etched his way into American history by killing JFK. In fact, he fired a shot into Walker’s home using the same rifle he used to assassinate Kennedy. 

Most significantly, Shapiro contended that Oswald was a huge admirer of the movie The Manchurian Candidate, which tells the story of an ex-soldier who becomes an assassin and murders an American president. Oswald saw the movie several times at the same theater he escaped to after he shot Kennedy. Bannon played devil’s advocate throughout the discussion and expressed skepticism about Oswald’s marksmanship. Bannon also criticized the Warren commission for not being sufficiently probing in its investigation.

Also contributing to the show was Breitbart News’s Jarrett Stepman, who asserted that there are five main culprits as focal points in JFK assassination conspiracy theories: the CIA, the Cubans, the Mafia, LBJ, and the Soviet Union’s KGB. He concluded the Soviets were the most likely to influence Oswald but stated he believes that Oswald acted alone. 

Roger Stone, Richard Nixon’s political strategist, discussed his theory that Kennedy’s Vice President and the next President of the United States, Lyndon Baines Johnson, was responsible for Kennedy’s assassination. In his new book, The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ, Stone accuses LBJ of being a monstrous Machiavellian who already murdered two others, including his sister, before he orchestrated the JFK assassination. LBJ was hated by other politicians and was accused of political bribery and stealing elections. Stone asserts that LBJ was the obvious beneficiary of Kennedy’s death and often “who derives the greatest benefit” from an act of murder is often the one who commits the crime.

Political guru and former Jimmy Carter strategist Pat Caddell painted broader strokes about the assassination, lamenting that the JFK killing was the seminal moment in American history when Americans began to distrust government and its institutions. Caddell contended that Americans began to feel that the Warren Commission was an effort to bamboozle the American public. Caddell feels that Kennedy was inspirational because of his ability to put forth great ideas and present them in speeches that inspired us. He lamented how political figures now offer only sound bites.

Last up was Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow. Bannon asked Marlow what the impact of the JFK assassination was on the millennial generation. Marlow likened that point in history to the 9/11 terror attacks as a history altering event. Marlow, 27, recounted his time studying at UC Berkeley and said that his fellow students only knew Kennedy as an icon of liberal Democrats. They failed to understand that Kennedy was a “Cold Warrior,” tax-cutter, and a committed Christian in addition to holding the belief that Americans should be dedicated to doing things for our country, not the other way around.