Steve Bannon obtained out of federal jail at round 3 am Tuesday. Seven hours later, he was dwell on his Conflict Room podcast to “flood the zone with shit” precisely one week earlier than the presidential election.
Flooding the zone with shit is Bannon’s personal oft-quoted description of his media technique: churning so many lies or half-truths into the stratosphere that it turns into inconceivable to attract a line between reality and fiction.
“I’m extra energized and extra centered than I’ve ever been in my total life,” stated Bannon on the Conflict Room stream on Rumble, which garnered almost 100,000 dwell viewers at one level. “The 4 months in federal jail not solely didn’t break me, it empowered me.”
Bannon, 70, a longtime ally of and former strategist for Donald Trump, spent 4 months at a low-security federal jail in Danbury, Connecticut, for contempt after he defied a subpoena within the congressional probe into the January 6 Capitol riot.
Bannon has forged himself as a martyr—somebody who, like January 6 rioters and like Trump, is being unfairly persecuted by the identical tyrannical forces they’re up towards subsequent week within the election.
On Tuesday on air, and later at a press convention, Bannon repeatedly advised that former Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi banished him to jail as a result of she needed to comprise his affect.
“For those who’re not ready to be despatched to federal jail as a political prisoner, then you definately’re unfit to be on this motion,” he stated. “You must perceive, they need to put you in jail, and they’re going to put you in jail. For those who can’t settle for that, then you definately don’t know what they signify.”
Bannon’s return to the general public sphere additionally means the return of an enormous mouthpiece to amplify the election fraud conspiracies which can be already raging on-line. And Bannon obtained on to enterprise, spinning a story to his viewers of Democrats plotting to heist the 2024 election.
“Day by day after November 5 goes to be Stalingrad,” Bannon stated. “If they’ll’t take it away from Trump, if they’ll’t nullify it proper there, they need to not less than delegitimize his victory.”
“They may go to any size to cease President Trump,” Bannon continued. “That’s the truth.”
A 2023 Brookings research on disinformation in political podcasts recognized Bannon’s Conflict Room as the most important disseminator of falsehoods and unsubstantiated claims; a few fifth of all episodes assessed by researchers had been decided to have claims flagged as false by debunkers corresponding to Snopes and Politifact.
“If the Pelosi equipment wins, you higher be ready to go to federal jail,” Bannon stated. “As a result of these individuals don’t have any qualms about weaponizing the justice system, weaponizing the authorized system, towards Individuals who’ve completely different political opinions.”
His followers appear to be completely happy he’s again. “God Bless You Steve’ Get The Bannon Sledge Hammer Out, And Begin Smashing The TRAITORS,” one viewer wrote in the course of the Tuesday livestream.
“Welcome again Steve, we want our chief,” wrote one other. “Give us our marching orders and lets get this performed.”