9/10/2017

JAMES COMEY/MEDIA/STEVE BANNON: “In his first extended interview since he left the White House last month, Stephen K. Bannon was unsparing in his criticism: calling out top Republicans, West Wing staff, the ‘pearl-clutching mainstream media,’ special counsel investigators and the Roman Catholic Church.
He even singled out President Trump, labeling his firing of James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, the biggest mistake in ‘modern political history.’
Pressed by the interviewer, Charlie Rose, Mr. Bannon said that had Mr. Comey not been fired, the Justice Department investigation into possible links between the Trump campaign and Russia’s election interference would not have been handed over to the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III…
The assertion, made in an online-only segment of a wide-ranging ’60 Minutes’ interview that aired on Sunday night, was perhaps the most extraordinary of many criticisms made by Mr. Bannon as he sets out to reclaim his mantle as Mr. Trump’s most prominent outside supporter from his perch as the head of Breitbart News, the far-right website.
Despite his complaint about Mr. Comey’s firing, Mr. Bannon said he planned to be the president’s ‘wingman outside for the entire time’ he is in office.”

-Noah Weiland, “Bannon Calls Comey Firing the Biggest Mistake in ‘Modern Political History’,” The New York Times online, Sept. 10, 2017