Breitbart News Executive Chairman and former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon tore into establishment anti-Trump Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) Tuesday over Flake’s decision to write a $100 check to Democratic Alabama senate candidate Doug Jones.
“Come on brother, if you’re gonna write a check, write a check,” Bannon said in front of an Alabama crowd at a rally for Republican candidate Judge Roy Moore. “Don’t give the man $100, are you kidding me?”
Bannon was reacting to a typically haughty tweet from the outgoing Arizona senator, in which he tweeted a photo of his check with the memo line reading: “Country over Party.”
Flake’s tweet quickly drew ire from conservatives, who noted it was one thing to oppose Trump and another to support a pro-abortion Democrat in a typically red state.
Bannon suggested that the showboating from Flake was a reason why his approval ratings are underwater in Arizona.
“Hey Flake, this is why your approval rating in your home state is like 11 percent,” Bannon laughed. “Man, You’re a total embarrassment.”
Bannon also said it was typical of Flake, who had opposed Trump and the economic nationalist movement since day one.
“Flake has hated this movement from day one. He wrote the book, the anti-populist, anti-economic nationalist book … trash all the deplorables, trash all the silent majority, trash everybody associated with this movement,” he said.
Bannon noted that Flake had predicted Trump’s defeat a day before he won the election and that it was typical of a broader narrative driving the narrative behind many anti-Trump Republicans.
“Jeff Flake has done nothing except run the President of the United States down since the president won, and now he comes out at the last second and says, ‘I’m going to give 100 dollars to a Democrat.’ This tells you all you need to know.”
Adam Shaw is a Breitbart News politics reporter based in New York. Follow Adam on Twitter: @AdamShawNY.