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A fiery exchange saw prison-bound Steve Bannon defending past remarks about justice from a talking head determined to pad the violent rhetoric narrative with talk of “heads on pikes.”

“…it’s beneath you…”

Ahead of surrendering himself for a four-month prison sentence Monday over his 2022 contempt of Congress conviction, the onetime adviser to then-President Donald Trump sat down with ABC’s Jon Karl for an interview on “This Week.”

Unsurprisingly, the conversation leaned heavily on fearmongering over a potential second term for the GOP leader, with Karl dredging up comments from Bannon only days after the 2020 election where he’d suggested, if he had his say, FBI Director Christopher Wray and then-Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci, would have their “heads on pikes…at the two corners of the White House” as a warning to other bureaucrats to get in line.”

“That is a metaphor in this town, Jonathan, and it’s beneath you to bring it up! In this town, it’s-” said the “War Room” host as Karl interjected, “It’s not beneath me to bring this up.”

“In this town, a thousand times a day, people go, ‘We got to put the heads on pike, we have to put his head on a pike. It was a metaphor,” insisted Bannon.

Forever coddling Fauci, who continued to have his security detail covered by American tax dollars despite retiring with a six-figure pension as a multi-millionaire, the interviewer pressed, “You’re saying at a time when Anthony Fauci and his family are facing death threats, when Christopher Wray and FBI agents all the way down are facing death threats, and you’re going out and talking about putting their heads on pikes.”

“A total metaphor,” reiterated Bannon. “Anybody understands that. That’s, that’s your overreach, by the way. They banned us, I think, on Twitter. They banned us on Facebook for that. And hey, guess what? The show got even bigger. So not that we care — I’m not backing off my-”

Karl cut in again, “Are you concerned about those death threats though?”

“That’s not a — what do you mean death threats?” asked the guest while the journalist furthered, “I mean the fact that-”

“You think I don’t get death threats?” interrupted Bannon. “Do you think I don’t get death threats and have security all the time? That comes when you play at the highest levels. It just comes.”

Earlier in June, Bannon had responded to voiced dread from former FBI Director Andrew McCabe who had expressed concern over a what a second Trump term would mean for those who’s wronged the president during an appearance with CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins, “These are torturous discussions with their family members about whether or not they will have to leave the country to avoid being unconstitutionally and illegally detained. People are actually worried about being thrown in jail or grabbed in some sort of extrajudicial detention.”

“You know the crimes you’ve committed,” the podcast host and reacted in part. “You know what you’ve done. And that’s Lisa Monaco, Merrick Garland, all of them: FBI, DOJ, the intelligence agency, CIA.”

Those kinds of remarks were raised by Karl who mentioned, “You made a promise on your shows, you said that the attorney general will be in prison.”

“100%” noted Bannon who’d indicated that as recently as the presidential debate Trump had clarified his “retribution” would be a successful second term. Still, the interviewer went on, “So, you’re not just talking about investigations. Is [former Attorney General] Bill Barr on the retribution list?”

“I think Bill Barr has to be investigated, not retribution. You keep talking retribution, no-” the guest attempted to clarify as Karl held firm to weaponizing Trump’s words. “Because Trump says retribution and you said retribution.”

Not standing for it, Bannon repeated, “It’s justice. It’s justice.”

That didn’t stop the journalist from reaching his own conclusions as he wondered, “So, Bill Barr needs to be investigated? Bill Barr needs to go to prison with Merrick Garland?”

“I didn’t say that. I didn’t say that. We have to see. I’m not gonna prejudge somebody. We have to see-” he added while Karl mentioned prison again. “That’s not retribution. It’s justice.”

Kevin Haggerty
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