During a fleeting exchange on Bannon’s War Room podcast, Republican Representative Nancy Mace and Steve Bannon grinned with clenched teeth.
Mace of South Carolina, appearing alongside Florida Representative Matt Gaetz, exchanged sarcastic remarks with Bannon regarding Mace’s 2021 vote to hold Bannon in criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to appear before the congressional committee investigating the January 6 Capitol incursion.
Citizen Free Press published on Wednesday a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, in which Gaetz described how the New York Times portrays him as “hard liner,” “ultra-MAGA,” and “far right.”
Gaetz then referred to Mace, a pro-LGBT Republican seeking a middle ground on abortion who voted with Democrats to indict Bannon for criminal contempt.
“Let’s talk about this for a moment,” Gaetz said. “Nancy is not a hard right intransigent lawmaker. But our Venn diagram overlaps…”
Bannon interrupted: “Didn’t she vote to send me to federal prison for four months?”
Countered Mace: “I like the Constitution. I’m a constitutionalist.”
“My fellow lawyer would disagree about that,” Bannon responded.
Steve Bannon: "Didn't you vote to send me to federal prison?"
Nancy Mace: "I like the Constitution."
Bannon: "My lawyer would disagree." pic.twitter.com/Br5PcDSzRG
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) October 4, 2023
Bannon is currently out on appeal after being sentenced to four months in federal prison for two counts of contempt of Congress in 2022.
The January 6 committee requested information from Bannon regarding any potential role played by former President Donald Trump in the Capitol event.
His defense was based on his executive privilege as Trump’s chief strategist and counsel. Since Bannon was no longer at the White House on January 6, the prosecution contends he is not exempt from testifying about that date.
Mace stated in 2021, regarding the criminal contempt motion, “I want to preserve the subpoena power that Congress has,” according to the Post and Courier of South Carolina.
“We need to have the ability to uphold that authority and power in the Constitution. I’m going to have the same position for whoever is in power, Republican or Democrat,” she said.
The Wall Street Journal deemed the grand jury indictment led by Biden attorney general Merrick Garland to be unusual.
“The case against Mr. Bannon represents a rare kind of prosecution for the Justice Department, which has declined to act on other contempt-of-Congress referrals in recent years,” the Journal said at the time.