Steve Bannon, presenter of Real America’s Voice’s “War Room” program, recently argued on his show that Fox News is “all-in” on preventing the return of former President Donald Trump to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
He began by referencing a Fox interview indicating that Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin is on standby in the event that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis fails to prevent Trump from becoming the 2024 Republican presidential nominee.
“People should understand this: Fox is now all-in, 1,000 percent, on making sure it’s not Donald Trump” who wins the nomination, Bannon said.
He cited an interview conducted by “Fox & Friends” anchor Steve Doocy with billionaire Youngkin supporter Thomas Peterffy, in which Peterffy predicted the Virginia governor could defeat Trump in the primary and win the presidency.
Peterffy had formerly supported DeSantis.
He is “completely clueless like all these billionaires are about MAGA, the American people, the populist movement,” Bannon said.
“They understand the populist movement in it playing out to its logical conclusion. Eventually, the billionaires are going to have to start paying up in taxes because they are the ones that have allowed this nightmare to go on,” the Real America’s Voice host added.
“They are the ones that have been backing these RINO moderate Republicans, who have been the controlled opposition to these radical Democrats and to the oligarchs on Wall Street and to Silicon Valley. And where has that led us? To the edge of financial ruin for the middle class and working class,” the conservative firebrand said.
Bannon argued that Fox News and the Republican establishment share the same mentality as billionaires like Peterffy.
The Republican National Committee awarded Fox Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch the second GOP presidential primary debate, which will broadcast on Fox Business Network on August 23, while Fox News will air the first debate on August 23.
“So not only does Murdoch have a trap for Trump in the first debate, which President Trump could never take with the Keebler elves. Then 30 days later at the Reagan Library, it will be Fox Business, just another Murdoch entity, has the second debate,” Bannon said.
“It gives them another month on ‘Fox & Friends’ going all throughout the day, now that they got rid of Tucker Carlson, to craft the narrative, that ‘It can’t be Trump. It’s not Trump. Trump’s in too much legal’ [trouble],” he continued.
Bannon argued that Fox spent over a year and a half promoting DeSantis, who is now polling second nationally and in early primary states such as New Hampshire and Iowa.
“And they are going to continue this and quite frankly MAGA has to fight back on this cause they are trying to craft this narrative if that they can’t replace Trump as the primary [winner] to at least kneecap him, so he can’t defeat [California Gov. Gavin] Newsom or Michelle Obama or whoever else that the Murdochs are in back of,” Bannon said.
“If you gave the Murdoch sons and their wives a choice between Donald Trump and Michelle Obama, they’d pick Michelle Obama every day. Give them a choice between Donald Trump and Newsom. Newsom every day of the week,” the “War Room” host concluded.
Trump also called out Fox News on Truth Social on Wednesday writing, “Fox News is going all out, just as they did in 2016, to figure who in this very large, but failing, Republican field, can beat your favorite President, Donald John Trump.”
“They use only the most negative polls, which are still great for me, and do everything possible to show that they still have a chance,” Trump continued.
“They even pull out nice guy Marc Thiessen to do contortions with numbers that just don’t exist. On top of all that, I am the only one beating, by a lot, Crooked Joe Biden, the WORST “P” EVER!”
Marc Thiessen, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush and a contributor to Fox News, stated on the network Monday that only about a quarter of the Republican primary electorate actually supports Trump.
“There’s about a quarter of the electorate who will not support Trump no matter what in the primaries,” Thiessen said. “There’s a quarter of the electorate who are hard MAGA who say they are only considering Trump.”
“And polls show that about 50 percent of voters in the Republican primary. They’re considering Trump. They’re considering other candidates. That means 75 percent of the electorate is up for grabs and persuadable.”