Now that President Trump has taken charge of the Washington swamp, Stephen Bannon wants GOP hopefuls to stop trying to drain it.
Candidates running on the Republican ticket keep trying to follow in Trump's footsteps and campaign on an anti-establishment platform, reports The New York Times, but the president's former chief strategist thinks that's a losing strategy now that Trump is the establishment.
"People are starting to realize that the anti-establishment thing is kind of a luxury we can't afford right now," Bannon told the Times.
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It's a far cry from Bannon's previously held views. The former chairman of Breitbart once sought to buck the system, calling for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) to be removed from his seat and hoping for a populist revolt to "take back the government" by rejecting the "political class."
Now that that strategy has failed for fringe GOP candidates like Don Blankenship in West Virginia and Trump has somewhat embraced the swampy political strategizing, Bannon is reframing his opinions on what "taking back the government" should look like. Rebellious candidates should hold their fire on the failing status quo that overlooks the working class, says Bannon, lest it appear that their anti-establishment views are anti-Trump. Read more at The New York Times.
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