Reid Cherlin writes in Vice News about a 2014 encounter he had with then Breitbart News executive chairman and current Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.
From Vice News:
In September of 2014 I went to Steve Bannon’s house for a party. I was on assignment from Rolling Stone to embed with the staff of Breitbart.com. It was supposed to be a way of illuminating the larger world of gonzo right-wing media. I had never heard of Steve Bannon himself.
The invitation — to cocktails and a seated dinner — listed the location as the “Breitbart Embassy.” It turned out to be a brick townhouse on Capitol Hill, a few blocks east of the Supreme Court building. The Embassy did triple duty as a workspace for the website’s D.C. reporters, a handsome living quarters for Bannon and other company brass, and a swank entertainment venue for a social circle drawn from Washington’s misfit conservative fringe.
Or at least, they were fringe at the time. Bannon, now arguably the surrogate president of the United States, was then Breitbart.com’s executive chairman. He moved among clusters of guests with a big smile. When I was introduced to him, I asked why he called the place the Embassy. “D.C. is like Saigon in ’68,” he said. “You don’t know who your friends are and who your enemies are.” Among friends for the moment at least, he promised that he’d set up time for the two of us to talk one-on-one, and then returned to his hosting duties.
Read the rest here.