Has the Trump campaign finally grown desperate enough to bring back Steve Bannon?
The double whammy of the COVID-19 pandemic and riots over police brutality has caused the President to slip in the polls against rival Joe Biden, particularly in key swing states. Campaign manager Brad Parscale is falling out of favor with Trump, reports say, mainly due to weak attendance at the President’s comeback rally in Tulsa. Some Trump allies worry that the campaign is too focused on petty attacks on Biden rather than providing a message of leadership in the face of nationwide unrest. Cockburn thinks anyone faced with all of that uncertainty might be itching to dip back into 2016’s secret sauce.
Bannon, who was credited with righting the sinking ship when he took over the campaign in August 2016, may be just the shot of adrenaline Trump needs. Republican officials told the Guardian that Bannon was trying to worm his way back into mainstream conservative circles. One claimed that there was no ‘formal or informal’ role for him in the campaign but that the President was a fan of his podcast, War Room: Pandemic. Cockburn, who listens to the show quite often, notices that Bannon has been conspicuously absent from the program of late. His last time hosting was on Wednesday, June 24 and he’s made only short, random appearances otherwise. The other hosts say cryptically that Bannon is ‘on assignment’ when addressing his lack of a regular presence.
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If the pattern holds, this could be a sign that Bannon is back in campaign mode. He similarly abandoned his Breitbart radio show when the campaign came knocking in 2016. Quite an ‘assignment’ it would be if Bannon was tasked yet again with steering Trump through the dog days of summer just ahead of the election.
It wouldn’t be the first time the fledgling campaign poached one of its old school allies to try to right the ship. Jason Miller, another War Room: Pandemic host, rejoined the campaign in early June despite a history of scandal. At this rate, the War Room could very well turn into the nap room.
If the polls are to be believed, the campaign must do something drastic to make up Trump’s double-digit deficit. Bringing back the man who manufactured the upset against Hillary Clinton last time around may be just the cure it needs.
