Steve Bannon says GOP is letting Democrats run intelligence committees
Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon— back at Breitbart News and eager to fight for President Trump from the outside — said Republicans are allowing Democrats to essentially run the intelligence committees in Congress.
Bannon — highly critical of the establishment GOP — said in a portion of Charlie Rose's interview that aired on "Charlie Rose" Monday night that, "the Republican leadership has allowed three committees to go and principally be run by Democrats."
"I think Adam Schiff is running the House (Intelligence) Committee. I see him on TV all the time," Bannon told Rose. "Looks like Mark Warner is running the Senate (Intelligence) Committee and not (Republican) Senator (Richard) Burr.
"Can you imagine — let's just take in political physics, can you imagine if Hillary Clinton would have won and Chuck Schumer, and Nancy Pelosi were the heads of the Senate and the House, that you would have three committees investigating President Hillary Clinton, and you would actually have Republicans running those committees? Of course, you would."
The House and Senate Intelligence Committees are investigating Russian election meddling and any ties between Russia and the Trump campaign. Bannon did not mention the third committee he was referencing, but a Judiciary subcommittee is also conducting a probe.
Bannon — who has typically evaded interviews with the mainstream press — has emerged from the White House as a figure eager to criticize the shortcomings of the Republican Party, and of the White House he left. Bannon, in his exclusive interview with "60 Minutes," called President Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey one of the biggest mistakes in "modern political history."
"I don't think there's any doubt that if James Comey had not been fired, we would not have a special counsel, yes," Bannon told Rose. "We would not have the Mueller investigation. We would not have the Mueller investigation and the breadth that clearly Mr. Mueller is going for."
But it's the GOP establishment that Bannon is ready to wage war against from his position at Breitbart, and he has pledged to back populist challengers to GOP members of Congress he perceives as blocking Mr. Trump's agenda.
Here is a link to this episode of "Charlie Rose."
