Former President Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon stated that he does not “fear going to prison” days after a federal judge ordered him to report to prison on July 1 for a four-month sentence.
During an interview with conservative journalist and commentator Tucker Carlson, Bannon, the host of the War Room podcast, said that he had “served” in the United States Navy and was not afraid to go to prison and serve time as a “political prisoner.”
Bannon had also served as the executive chairman for Breitbart News before being hired as the CEO of the Trump campaign in August 2016.
“In my twenties, I spent almost four years on a Navy destroyer in the North Arabian Sea, Persian Gulf, Western Pacific, [and] South China Sea. So, in my twenties, I served my country on a Navy destroyer. In my seventies, I’ll serve my country in a federal prison,” Bannon explained. “It doesn’t make any difference; it won’t change my life. I don’t have a big social agenda. I’m dedicated to this work of saving my country, and if I have to be a political prisoner, I’ll be a political prisoner.”
In 2022, Bannon was convicted by a jury and given a sentence of four months in prison, although this was later placed on pause while Bannon appealed the decision. In May, an appeals court upheld Bannon’s conviction for defying a subpoena from the Democrat-run House committee that was created to investigate the riot at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
“This is a misdemeanor,” Bannon continued, adding that one of the men at the “federal courthouse” in Washington, DC, said he “had never remembered a misdemeanor ever being prosecuted” or going to trial and that the court was “so backed up with felonies.”
Bannon went on to speak about former White House adviser Peter Navarro, who was the first official from the Trump administration to serve a four-month prison sentence for being held in contempt of Congress after defying a subpoena from the Democrat-run January 6 Select Committee.
The War Room host added that he was prepared to take this to the United States Supreme Court, saying he told his team, “regardless what it costs,” he is prepared to “go to the Supreme Court.”
“July 1, hey, I served my country on a Navy ship; I’ll serve my country as a political prisoner in a federal prison for a misdemeanor,” Bannon said. “I don’t bat one eye. Whatever it takes to win this revolution, we got to do.”
In May, David Schoen, Bannon’s attorney, issued a response to the appeals court upholding the contempt conviction and described the decision as “wrong” and reflecting a “very dangerous view of the threshold for criminal liability for any defendant.”
After joining the Trump administration as a chief strategist, Bannon left in August 2017 and later rejoined Breitbart News until his departure in early 2018.
Bannon continued to explain that this was a “war to the knife,” adding that he had “to win this.”
“I understand what’s going on here, as you do. This is an illegitimate regime of Neo-Marxists — from the Justice Department to the FBI, the Wall Street Crowd,” Bannon said. “You can see this everywhere in our society, the attacks on the family, and they play for keeps.”
Bannon continued:
And I’m so glad that the Alex Joneses, and the Tucker Carlsons, and, particularly, since you’ve had the opportunity to leave Fox, ourselves, and so many others, now understand that this is a war to the knife, right? We have to win this. If we don’t win this, this country’s going to devolve into some kind of Neo-Marxist totalitarian regime, of which it’s pretty far down the road right now.
“That’s why I don’t fear going to prison. I know it’s going to take my voice off the…the war is still going to go on, and I keep saying, ‘It’s next man up. You can’t lean on Trump. You can’t lean on Tucker. You can’t lean on Bannon. You can’t lean on Alex Jones,'” he concluded.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.