Steve Bannon’s efforts to challenge incumbent Republican senators up for re-election, save for Ted Cruz, has little to do with advancing Donald Trump’s wishes or legislative agenda (whatever that is), and everything to do with burning down the house.
Although this revelation might come as no surprise to political cynics, it does go against Bannon’s stated plan, as expressed during his White House exit interviews. “Steve Bannon left the White House because the Trump administration ‘needed a wingman outside’ and now wants to help get allies of President Donald Trump elected to the Senate, he said Tuesday at a global investment conference,” CNN reported last month.
His tune hasn’t changed. “We are declaring war on the Republican establishment that does not back the agenda that Donald Trump ran on,” Bannon told Fox News’ Sean Hannity this week.
If Bannon’s goal were really to be Trump’s “wingman outside,” though, then why would Cruz be excluded from the hit list? Cruz called Trump a “pathological liar” and refused to endorse him at the Republican National Convention. At one point, Trump even threatened to launch a Super PAC against Cruz.
