'America This Week': Bannon says Trump should take impeachment threat 'very seriously'
WASHINGTON (SBG) — Former White House chief political strategist Steve Bannon warned that the Trump administration has been improvising a response to the threats of impeachment and should begin to take the matter more seriously.
"America This Week" host Eric Bolling spoke with Bannon after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the start of a formal impeachment inquiry Tuesday related to President Donald Trump's dealings with Ukraine.
Calling Pelosi a "pro's pro" of politics, Bannon warned, "President Trump and the people around him have to take this very seriously and have to really come up with a plan to combat this. They have to go on offense."
Bannon faulted the administration for the way it handled a memo detailing a July 25 phone call in which President Donald Trump repeatedly pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to work with his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani and U.S. Attorney General William Barr to investigate Joe Biden, Trump's 2020 Democratic rival.
"They have to get a plan; they have to execute a plan," Bannon told Bolling. "Right now it looks a little bit like they're calling audibles—they're kind of making this up as they go along."
In the phone conversation, Trump requested help investigating whether former Vice President Biden inappropriately influenced the outcome of a Ukrainian prosecutor's investigation of a company where his son, Hunter Biden, served as a board member.
On Sunday, members of the administration were telling reporters that the transcript of the call would not be released but within 48 hours, that decision was overruled and it was made public. The memo was also related to an intelligence community whistleblower complaint that was withheld from Congress, sparking outrage in the Democratic House of Representatives and prompting Pelosi to push ahead with impeachment.
President Trump responded to the calls for his impeachment during a lengthy press conference at the United Nations General Assembly Wednesday. He denounced the process as a "big hoax" and defending his behavior in the call with Zelenskiy. Trump also suggested he would release additional memos of his and Vice President Mike Pence's calls with the Ukrainian president.
Bannon argued that Trump should be playing it closer to the vest. "What I didn't like today was the press conference by the president," he advised. "I would be less in sharing information right now and more in getting a battle plan and getting people around him that can execute on this battle plan."
"The country's going to be in a very tough ride for the next six months," Bannon continued. "This is going to be an all-out fight."
According to Trump 2020 strategic communications director Marc Lotter, the president's reelection campaign is prepared to wage that fight.
"If we have to jump into action, we're prepared to do it," Lotter said, boasting "one of the largest abilities to amplify" the president's message on the issues related to impeachment.
In the 24 hours following House Speaker Pelosi's announcement of a formal impeachment inquiry, the Trump campaign raised $5 million, Lotter said. "I think it shows you the strength of the support this president has across the nation," he said, arguing that outside of the Democratic base the American public is "sick" of efforts to impeach the president.
Bolling also spoke with Roger Stone, a former 2016 Trump campaign associate who was accused of witness tampering and lying to Congress during the Trump-Russia investigation. Stone was also an aide to Richard Nixon, who narrowly escaped impeachment.
The veteran politico predicted that the Democrats "jumped the gun very badly" on impeachment, arguing that the bipartisan consensus does not exist in the country to support the measure.
"This is going to rebound to the president's benefit the same way, ironically, the Clinton impeachment attempt rebounded to [President Bill] Clinton's benefit," he continued. Clinton's approval numbers were strong at the end of the impeachment process, but Republicans went on to win the presidency and hold their House majority in 2000.
Stone further claimed that House Speaker Pelosi was "stampeded" by the Democratic caucus to move ahead with impeachment. "She's losing control of her caucus," Stone argued.
As of Wednesday, there were more than 200 of the 235 House Democrats support impeachment or an impeachment inquiry. A new Quinnipiac University poll show that the vast majority of Democratic voters support impeachment, but it is not popular with the broader American electorate.
Also appearing on the program this week is former White House strategist Steve Bannon, strategic communications director for the Trump 2020 campaign Marc Lotter and Andrew Pollack, a school safety advocate whose daughter was killed in the Parkland, Fla. shooting.
Also appearing on the program this week was Andrew Pollack, a school safety advocate whose daughter Meadow was killed in the Parkland, Fla. shooting. Pollack spoke to Bolling about his new book, "Why Meadow Died: The People and Policies That Created The Parkland Shooter and Endanger America's Students."
"The book was inspired by my love of my daughter," Pollack told Bolling. "She would want the American people to know the truth."
Pollack described his book as a "manual" for every parent to read, saying he uncovered the local and national that allowed for the murder of his daughter and 16 others.
White House reporter for Politico Gabby Orr joined Bolling for "Balls and Strikes," a weekly segment featuring debate and discussion on the state of national news media.
"America This Week" is an hour-long program featuring interviews with lawmakers, administration officials, and politicians with unique insights into the issues that matter to Americans. The show also features news stories from Sinclair Broadcast Group's stations around the country to give viewer's reports on relevant events from right where they are happening.
The program streams on all Sinclair sites every Wednesday at 7 p.m. EDT/ 4 p.m. PDT.