Few people have had more impact on U.S. politics in the past five years than Stephen Bannon. The Conservative firebrand helped build Breitbart News into a media juggernaut and was indispensable in getting Donald Trump elected President.
Bannon is a notorious workhorse who doesn’t hold back when it comes to snowflakes and RINOs. In a new book by Bloomberg’s Josh Green, Bannon reportedly unleashed an epic tirade against Paul Ryan after he caught wind of a plot to install the Speaker as the 2016 presidential nominee.
Yahoo News via Independent UK reports:
According to Mr Green, Mr Bannon flew off the handle when he learned of a Republican plot to install Mr Ryan as the presidential nominee at the 2016 Republican National Convention.
At the headquarters of his far-right publication, Breitbart News, Mr Bannon unloaded on Mr Ryan as a “limp-d**k motherf***** who was born in a petri dish at the Heritage Foundation,” a conservative think tank.
In Devil’s Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Storming of the Presidency, Mr Green argues that the Speaker exemplified just the kind of traditional conservative politics Mr Bannon hoped to upset.
A strong supporter of the emerging “alt-right,” Mr Bannon threatened to rally their young, far-right forces against Mr Ryan.
“Pepe’s gonna stomp their ass,” he reportedly said, referring to the movement’s cartoon frog mascot.
Mr Bannon cemented his dislike for Mr Ryan in his role as chairman of Breitbart News, which frequently went after the Speaker during the presidential campaign.
Bannon’s deep distrust towards Speaker Ryan is certainly merited. Breitbart News’ Matthew Boyle published a report in March including leaked audio of Ryan telling fellow Republicans that he won’t ever defend Trump after the Access Hollywood tapes dropped.
Breitbart News reported:
“That’s why I’m going to spend the rest of this month fighting for Congress, fighting for our majorities,” Ryan continued. “I’m going to spend the next 28 days working hard with all of our members to get re-elected because we need a check on Hillary Clinton if Donald Trump and Mike Pence don’t win the presidency. Greg Walden will get more into what that looks like and what polling looks like, but I want to basically close with this: His comments are indefensible, they’re not in keeping with our principles, so I’m not going to try to defend him. I’m going to focus on Congress, I’m going to focus on upholding our values. We have a great, great policy agenda—A Better Way—that we need to take to voters and show what our party actually stands for and what it’s stood for for generations.”
LISTEN TO AUDIO OF PAUL RYAN’S OCT. 10, 2016, CONFERENCE CALL WITH HOUSE GOP:
In response to this audio surfacing, Ryan spokesman Brendan Buck told Breitbart News: “The world is well aware of this history.”
“And obviously a lot has happened since then. As everyone knows,” Buck added in a follow-up email.
In a third follow-up email, Buck clarified about the comments from Ryan that “of course they were” specifically about the Access Hollywood tapes.
“This was in response to that, but as everyone knows, they came together toward the end of the campaign and the speaker vocally supported him and even campaigned with Pence,” Buck said.
But Ryan never campaigned with Trump.
