Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon received the Phyllis Schlafly Eagle Award Sunday at a “Put Americans First” rally hosted by the late conservative great’s foundation in St. Louis, Missouri.
Accepting the award, Bannon called Schlafly a prominent fixture of the post-war American conservative movement most famous for her momentous leadership in the shocking defeat of the so-called “Equal Rights Amendment” and “one of the great personalities of the twentieth century.”
“There’s an unbroken chain from her grit, determination, and her courage, from what she did in the early-1960s to what [gubernatorial candidate] Scott Wagner is doing in Pennsylvania,” Bannon said.
Dismissing the challenge from Democrats as less important than winning the war for the heart of the GOP, Bannon insisted:
The first thing you have to get through is a corrupt and incompetent Republican establishment. The Republican establishment on Capitol Hill has not had any support for President Trump [or] … his populist-nationalist conservative agenda, populist-nationalist conservative ideas, or his populist, conservative, nationalist program. You know why? They’re not populist; they’re elitist. They’re not nationalists; they’re globalists. They are not conservative; they are liberal. And that is what we’ve got to fight every day.
The decades-old Eagle Award was given by Schlafly until her death last year, just a month before President Trump’s similarly unexpected victory in the 2016 presidential election. Previous winners include then-Sen. Jeff Sessions in 2006 and Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC) in 1975. Schlafly’s legacy and her award are carried on by the Phyllis Schlafly Eagle Foundation.
“If you’re fearless, you’re not afraid what’s next. You know where your heart is. You know what the truth is. You know what you love,” said Phyllis Schalfy Eagles and Eagle Forum President Ed Martin, introducing Bannon. “Phyllis saw that in Trump, and she saw it in Steve Bannon, and she saw it in what Breitbart was doing.”
“We’re at a key moment in world history … and at the heart of it is you and Bannon and me.” Martin continued. “It’s our turn to lead the revolution to make America great.”
Later in his acceptance speech, Bannon turned his attention to the U.S. Senate GOP special primary between Trump-endorsed, establishment-friendly Sen. Luther Strange and his man in the race, former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore. “They’ve raised $32 million, versus, I think, three or four for Judge Moore,” he said, highlighting the presence of massive swells of Republican establishment cash behind Strange.
“It is a politics of personal destruction,” Bannon said of the Strange campaign’s relentless attack ads against Moore. “They’re out to destroy him. … They cannot take the righteousness that people like Roy Moore represent.”
Bannon finished his speech by promoting Monday night’s election-eve rally for Moore in featuring Duck Commander founder Phil Robertson, ex-UKIP leader Nigel Farage, and himself, among other populist-nationalist notables. “We’re gonna lay it on ’em,” Bannon promised the crowd. “That message is going to resonate not just in this country, but throughout the world–that no matter what, the corrupt elite represented by Mitch McConnell is not going to tell you to shut up. … You guys are tough as boot leather, and we’re going to win.”