Steve Bannon walked out of federal prison around 3 a.m. Tuesday. Seven hours later, he went live on his channel War room podcast to “flood the block with shit” exactly one week before the presidential election.
Flooding the area with shit is Bannon’s an oft-quoted description of his communications strategy: throws so many lies or half-truths into the stratosphere that it becomes impossible to draw a line between fact and fiction.
“I am more energized and focused than I have ever been in my life,” Bannon said. War room streamed live on Rumble, at one point attracting nearly 100,000 live viewers. “Four months in federal prison not only did not break me, but it also strengthened me.”
Bannon, 70, a longtime ally and former strategist of Donald Trump, spent four months in a low-security federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut, for contempt after he defied subpoena in the congressional investigation into the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Bannon has cast himself as a martyr — someone who, like the January 6 rioters and like Trump, is being unfairly persecuted by the very tyrannical forces they would have fought against. again next week in the election.
On the air Tuesday and later at a news conference, Bannon repeatedly asked former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to send him to prison because she wanted to curb his influence.
“If you are not willing to be sent to federal prison as a political prisoner, then you do not deserve to be part of this movement,” he said. “You have to understand, they want to put you in jail and they will put you in jail. If you can’t accept that then you don’t know what they represent.”
Bannon’s return to the public eye also means the return of a giant mouthpiece to amplify conspiracy to commit election fraud is raging online. And Bannon got straight to business, telling the audience how Democrats were plotting to steal the 2024 election.
“Every day after November 5 will be Stalingrad,” Bannon said. “If they can’t take it away from Trump, if they can’t nullify it right there, then at least they want to nullify his victory.”
“They will do everything they can to stop President Trump,” Bannon continued. “It’s the truth.”
ONE Brookings Research 2023 about misinformation in political podcasts identified as Bannon’s War room as the greatest disseminator of false information and baseless claims; about one-fifth of all episodes reviewed by researchers were determined to contain claims flagged as false by debunkers like Snopes and Politifact.
“If the Pelosi machine wins, you better prepare to go to federal prison,” Bannon said. “Because these people have no qualms about weaponizing the justice system, weaponizing the legal system against Americans who have different political views.”
His fans seem to be happy that he is back. “God bless you Steve’ Get out Bannon’s sledgehammer and start smashing traitors,” one viewer wrote during Tuesday’s livestream.
“Welcome back Steve, we need our leader,” another wrote. “Give us our marching orders and let’s do this.”
