WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 23: Steve Bannon, former White House chief strategist and chairman of Breitbart News, speaks during a discussion on countering violent extremism, at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, October 23, 2017 in Washington, DC.
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Former chief White House strategist Steve Bannon says that Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russian lawyer — which included former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner — was “treasonous” and “unpatriotic,” according to the Guardian, which has seen an upcoming book by Michael Wolff, “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.”
Bannon also allegedly told Wolff that the government investigation into whether Trump campaign associates colluded with the Russians would “crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV.”
In June 2016, Trump Jr., Manafort and Kushner met with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower in New York. Rob Goldstone, an associate of Trump Jr., had told Trump Jr. that the Russians had damaging information on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
When Trump Jr. claimed that there was in fact nothing worthwhile on Hillary Clinton that came out of the meeting, according to the Guardian, Wolff writes that Bannon ridiculed Trump Jr., Manafort and Kushner.
“The three senior guys in the campaign thought it was a good idea to meet with a foreign government inside Trump Tower in the conference room on the 25th floor – with no lawyers. They didn’t have any lawyers,” Bannon said. “Even if you thought that this was not treasonous, or unpatriotic, or bad s***, and I happen to think it’s all of that, you should have called the FBI immediately.”
Bannon went on to talk about what he thinks they should have done instead, which would have been to have the campaign’s lawyers meet with the Russians and let the material be “dumped” to Breitbart or “maybe some other more legitimate publication.” With that approach, “You never see it, you never know it, because you don’t need to … But that’s the brain trust that they had,” Bannon added.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who was appointed in May to take over the Russia investigation after the president fired FBI Director James Comey, has indicted Manafort and his associate Rick Gates on money laundering charges, and former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.
Mr. Trump has consistently denied colluding with Russia.
Wolff told the Guardian that he spoke to Mr. Trump and a number of senior officials and advisers for “Fire and Fury,” which will be published next week, and he said that one recurring theme in the book is the “rancor” between Bannon and Kushner and Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter. He quotes former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who has advised Mr. Trump, as well as Kushner, as saying, “It is a war between the Jews and the non-Jews.” Kushner and Ivanka Trump are both Jewish.
Wolff also says in the book, according to the Guardian, that one of Mr. Trump’s outside advisers and a close friend, billionaire Thomas Barrack Jr., said of the president, “He’s not only crazy, he’s stupid.”
Trump attorney Ty Cobb declined comment.
CBS News’ Katiana Krawchenko contributed to this story.
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