Steve Bannon is leaving Breitbart News Network in the wake of negative comments about President Donald Trump and his family attributed to Bannon in an explosive new book.
“Steve is a valued part of our legacy, and we will always be grateful for his contributions, and what he has helped us to accomplish,” said Larry Solov, chief executive officer of Breitbart, in a brief story published on the web site Tuesday afternoon.
The story quotes Bannon as saying: “I’m proud of what the Breitbart team has accomplished in so short a period of time in building out a world-class news platform.”
Bannon became executive chairman of Breitbart in 2012 before leaving to to helm Trump’s presidential campaign in August 2016. Bannon served as a key adviser to Trump in the White House before getting maneuvered out in August 2017, and then he immediately returned to Breitbart.
Michael Wolff’s book Fire and Fury quotes Bannon attacking Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Ivanka Trump. His comments led President Trump to say Bannon had “lost his mind.”
In the book, Bannon is quoted as calling a campaign meeting that the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, had with a woman who described herself as a Russian emissary as “treasonous” and “unpatriotic.”
Gannon claimed Robert Mueller’s investigation of alleged collusion between the Trump presidential campaign and the Russian government would hit pay dirt, claiming “they’re going to crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV.”
He also called the president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, “dumb as a brick.”
Bannon reportedly tried to apologize for his comments, but President Trump hasn’t accepted it, and White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders even recently seemed to encourage Breitbart to fire Bannon.
