By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-10-31 00:03:24 | Updated at 2024-10-31 19:26:44
19 hours ago
Steve Bannon has spent the morning broadcasting to supporters and answering journalists' questions with one key message: Prison didn't break him; it made him stronger.
But, after he plonked himself down on a couch in the 5,500-square foot hotel suite serving as Bannon campaign HQ for the day, he admitted it might not have been that way.
The lowest point was passing through a thick steel door and realizing that this was real.
'They put the key in a massive steel door. They open the steel door and you walk in and go, "Wow, this is a cell block," he said Tuesday, describing the lowest point of his four months.
'But I said, "Hey, I did it in the Navy back in my 20s. I'll do it here."
'And it turned out to be not a big deal. I just had to get focused and turn it into a positive thing.'
Former Trump strategist Steve Bannon was released from federal prison on Tuesday at the end of a four-month sentence for contempt of Congress
Bannon sat down with Dailymail.com hours after leaving federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut.
He served four months for contempt of Congress, charges he maintains were politically motivated and part of an effort to silence him ahead of Tuesday's election.
Now he is out. And he says he is brimming with fresh ideas and plans for the 'politics of money,' after the world leaves behind the 'politics of race' and the 'politics of gender'.
He has advice for Trump on how to win the election and harsh words for his enemies.
But in an exclusive interview he also talked about what he learned in prison, his weight loss regimen, and how he stayed abreast of one of the tightest elections in history.
But first he can't resist a dig at a high-profile enemy as he describes life behind bars.
'This is not a camp. It's not what Michael Cohen went to,' he said. 'This is a prison. I think if you saw the picture last night when I walked out, it's got barbed wire, fences.
'It's a prison. I was in a cell block. I was in a cell, very small cell.'
Cohen, Trump's former fixer-turned-star-witness against him, served part of a three-year sentence for lying to Congress and tax fraud at Otisville Federal Correctional Institute (frequently named in the top ten of cushiest prisons) and part in his luxury apartment because of the COVID pandemic.
Bannon said he was lucky to be housed in a unit for veterans but that he still had to maintain a 'maniacal focus' for his own safety.
He has advice for Trump on how to win the election and harsh words for his enemies. But in an exclusive interview he also talked about what he learned in prison, his weight loss regimen, and how he stayed abreast of one of the tightest elections in history
His early life as a Naval officer aboard a destroyer helped prepare him for the experience.
'You live in very cramped quarters, and you're jammed in there,' he said.
Violence and drugs, particularly synthetic marijuana K2, were commonplace.
'You have to be very focused,' he said. 'But if you're focused and you kind of come up with a plan, ... my plan was to to listen, to learn and observe, then you can make the time go by quickly.'
Bannon was released just after 3am on Tuesday and travelled to New York, where he was soon back behind the microphone hosting his 'War Room' show.
He was dressed in trademark style, with two black shirts layered over each other and a wax Barbour coat over the top, despite being inside.
His face was jowlier than usual, the result of a prison diet and time in the exercise yard. At one point he had lost 20lb, he said, although it had probably evened out around a 12lb loss.
Bannon addressed a press conference in the 5,500-square foot hotel suite that served as his base after being released
It was interrupted by Robbie Roadsteamer: 'When's the next insurrection?'
Bannon served his time at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut
Coupled with the early start, he looked shattered by his first day of freedom in four months.
He spoke to Dailymail.com after wrapping a chaotic press conference. Supporters cheered his arrival and applauded answers.
At times he was pressed by an anti-Trump Republican writer before a man calling himself Robbie Roadsteamer, wearing a red suit, stood up and interrupted proceedings.
'When's the next insurrection and can we storm the Burger King,' he asked, before being marched out by a security guard.
Bannon maintained a quizzical look until he was able to resume his attack on Trump's election opponent Kamala Harris. He ridiculed her 'politics of joy' saying she had failed to translate it into a program for government
'She is failing to connect with minority men, Hispanic and African-American men,' he said.
'They understand what the scam is. They understand that this administration purposely let in millions of illegal alien migrants to drive down labor costs.'
He explained to DailyMail.com how he had used his time in side to explore the views of inmates.
Bannon said he kept up to date with news via the Daily Mail when he was in prison
'I met some fascinating people, particularly young African-Americans,' he said.
'I taught a course there in civics and government, and I met some incredible young people there.'
Every Tuesday afternoon, several dozen inmates would crowd into a simple classroom as Bannon turned his 'War Room' shtick into lessons in how the world worked, complete with whiteboard and random quizzes.
'What we try to do in the "War Room" is take a working class audience and really give them exposure to what would you would see on Bloomberg TV or reading the Wall Street Journal,' he said.
It included economics, capital markets, macro economics. How deficits become $36 trillion in debt and the interest payments that follow.
Listeners to his show will know how he joins the dots from the big numbers to the little numbers in American pocketbooks.
'I tie it all together, and they can't get enough of it,' he said. 'People want to learn how the system works. They want to understand how the system works, because right now, the news media goes out of its way, quite frankly, to obfuscate how it works.'
Bannon was Trump's White House chief strategist before losing a power struggle with other advisers to the president
Thousands of Trump supporters marched on the U.S. Capitol building on Jan 6, 2021, as part of an effort to overturn the election result
The result is a Wall Street and Silicon Valley oligarchy, run in cahoots with the political class in Washington, D.C.
'This is what the class was about, to tie it back to the Constitution, tie it back to the Declaration of Independence, to tie it back to the foundational documents of our great Republic,' he said.
Attendees earned certificates signed by Bannon.
He also spent time monitoring the news and overseeing production of 'War Room' via email, even if broader computer use was impossible.
'Well, you have no access to the internet, but I have a staff that every day would give me a summary of the news sites, including the Daily Mail,' he said.
From prison he was able to make sure that a string of guest presenters stayed focused on the grassroots of the MAGA movement.
'So the content, the content stayed, I think, very much the same,' he said
But he said there was no getting away from the fact that it was a difficult place
'These are dangerous, tough places, and that's one of the reasons I feel empowered,' he said.
'I came out more focused, in better shape, less weight, and, quite frankly, being engaged with people. I listened, I observed and I learned.'
