Former White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, the host of War Room and the former executive chairman of Breitbart News currently serving a four-month sentence in Danbury federal prison in Connecticut, is speaking out from behind bars in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News conducted via email for the first time since he was incarcerated just over a week ago.

Bannon, who agreed to do this emailed question-and-answer with Breitbart News from prison, answered several questions, including most importantly his reaction to the fact that Democrats as a party are now sticking with President Joe Biden as their nominee after Biden’s disastrous debate performance. In the past day, top Democrats from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to the chairs of the Congressional Black Caucus and Congressional Hispanic Caucus, as well as “Squad” leaders Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN), have made clear Biden is their guy and nothing is changing at the top of the ticket of their party.

Bannon, in comments sure to further inflame tensions on the left, says that means for supporters of former President Donald Trump that “we got the candidate we want” on the other side. That being said, Bannon argues that despite the political disaster for Democrats that Biden remaining the nominee for president presents, the nation faces a serious national security crisis with Biden still president when he clearly is not able to execute the duties of the position. Bannon says this “national security crisis” is “separate” from the political issues, and pressed Congressional Republicans like House Speaker Mike Johnson to aggressively investigate the matter. Bannon said Johnson should cancel the scheduled August recess and make Congress stay to work to get to the bottom of what he called the nation being led currently by a “non-performing cadaver” in Biden.

The former top Trump aide also argued that the NATO summit in Washington this week, where world leaders from dozens of nations are in the United States, presents a unique opportunity for supporters of Trump’s America First vision to press the populist nationalist agenda forward, especially with recent elections in the United Kingdom and France rejecting globalists on both the establishment right and center left. This, he said, is especially true given the fact some of the nastiest leaks against Biden to the media have come from foreign allies telling stories of how, over the years, president Biden has shown signs of cognitive decline in interactions with foreign leaders. These media leaks, too, Bannon argued, represent a fraying of the relationship between the establishment media and Democrats and Biden, and if that alliance is to be broken once and for all, the right must aggressively force the issue of Biden’s cognitive decline as a national security crisis.

Most importantly, Bannon opened the interview explaining what he means by the “next man up” concept he spoke frequently about before entering federal custody. He argues the strength of this “populist movement” is in numbers.

What follows here is a full transcript of the interview, slightly edited for clarity, as it is difficult to communicate via email with someone in federal prison.

BREITBART NEWS NETWORK: You’ve said repeatedly that you want everyone to focus on “next man up” while you’re inside prison. Can you explain that concept? What does “next man up” mean? What should supporters of President Trump be doing right now?

STEVE BANNON: We are a populist movement—our power derives from citizens actively engaged in the defense of our American republic—we have great leaders in both elective politics, media, activism—president being our leader and a unique hero in American history…but the established order thinks by targeting our leaders they can blunt the impact of MAGA—that assumption by them is wrong—lawfare against President Trump has only made him stronger and more appealing to an even wider segment of American voters—same with Rudy [Giuliani], Mike Lindell, Jim Hoft, Alex Jones, John Eastman, Jeff Clark, Cleta Mitchell…the list goes on and on and on—MAGA is the personification of ‘anti-fragile’—resilience is our watchword.

Next man up comes from that anti-fragile premise—when one leader goes down another steps up, when one person can’t fulfill their task and purpose another steps up…whatever the cause or the occasion, in any and all situations, the next person—male or female, young or old—steps into the breach—that is the foundational power of our country and our populist nationalist movement—citizens…citizens engaged and on fire for our country—NEXT MAN UP

I think you can see a real manifestation of this on War Room—10 to 20 rotating guest hosts, tons of contributors, and the audience going next level as force multipliers—the reach and power grows as more citizens get involved.

BREITBART: Obviously, right before you went inside we had the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump and since then a massive firestorm has ensued on the Democrat side about what to do with Biden given his cognitive decline. What do you think about what’s happening?

BANNON: We have two issues and it’s important to keep them separated; first, a national security crisis driven by the cover-up of the condition of a Commander-in-Chief that only is ‘on’ from 10 am to 4 pm and then with the type of glazed look that we saw at the debate—this impacts the entire country and the world—we must get to the bottom of it and must do that now—this is not about whether Biden can serve four more years but can he get the country safely to January 2025? The House should move immediately to investigate and get to the bottom of who knew this when—the cover-up is all-important.

The second is a political issue for Democrats—the reality is they disenfranchised millions of voters by having a phony primary—the powers that be in the Democratic Party know Biden can’t beat Trump—but they are stuck and it will take a trenching tool to dig him out.

The political goal here for MAGA is to ‘toxify’ the process of the Democratic bait and switch as much as possible …this is all process and the American voter should be armed with minute-by-minute information on what is actually going on…I’m sure they will be repulsed.

BREITBART: Democrats seem to have fallen in line in the past couple days behind Biden, coalescing behind him with a few exceptions. What are your thoughts on Democrats sticking with him despite the severe problems?

BANNON: So we got the candidate we want…and the country is stuck with a non-performing cadaver.

Time to ratchet up the national security aspect of this—he’s unfit to be Commander-in-Chief—now or in January 2025…we need to know who is responsible for this cover-up..clearly European leaders are giving one embarrassing story after another.

His numbers are low 40s—we can drive them to match his approval rating—39%

BREITBART: Congress is coming back this week. What should Republicans in Congress be doing? What should Speaker Johnson do?

BANNON: Speaker Johnson needs to deal with these issues immediately: weaponization of DOJ; single subject appropriations bills; the Biden investigations on taking money from the CCP and Ukraine; Biden investigations into his suitability to actually perform as Commander-in-Chief—and any coverup; and passing Chip Roy’s bill on stopping illegals from voting.

The House can’t take the summer off, especially when the down-ballot races will mean even more, and control of the House could determine the success of President Trump’s second term—in fact, I would cancel the August recess now and only clear time to go home to campaign… this is not a time for vacations, this is a time for focused work—we must grind everyday until 5 November—the House included.

BREITBART: This is all happening of course on the backdrop of NATO leaders descending this week on Washington for a massive summit the United States is hosting. What message does this Democrat mess send to America’s allies in NATO countries?

BANNON: What was scheduled as a showcase in front of the American people in an election year summer can be turned into a perfect illustration of ‘America First’—every major policy decision is coming directly from President Trump’s policies—to force NATO to become a true alliance and not simply an American protectorate and to have Europe stand on its feet in its national security, not be a vassal state to the USA ..the worst leaks about Biden’s lack of command presence come from the NATO and national security meetings with foreign leaders… In addition, Boris Johnson’s Tories and Macron’s party just got crushed in elections—so the biggest Ukraine hawks have had their wings clipped… perfect timing for America First.

BREITBART: It seems as though the media writ large have turned on Biden creating an irreparable divide between them. Can Biden ever win them back?

BANNON: The media know they have collaborated and conspired with Biden on some of the worst ventures of this regime…the degree and viciousness they attacked Biden from that night shows you their fear… They still have a vote—a big vote—how it plays out is dependent on how well the House forces the national security issue and how well MAGA media toxifies the bait and switch—we can force their hand on this as they are one of the pillars of the coverup.