Live from Virginia Friday morning on The John Fredericks Show – weekdays on WNTW AM 820/ FM 92.7 – Richmond, WJFN FM 100.5 – Central Virginia, WMPH AM 1010 / FM 100.1 / FM 96.9 (7-9 PM) Hampton Roads, WBRG AM 1050 / FM 105.1 – Lynchburg/Roanoke and Weekdays 6-10 am and 24/7 Stream – host Fredericks welcomed political strategist Stephen K. Bannon to the show who gave sound advice to the Trump administration as the president quarantines for COVID-19.
Fredericks: Stephen K. Bannon with us. He is the former White House strategist. Now Steve, quick story, 30 seconds, and I’ll give you the floor. I was there in the campaign when Access Hollywood went down. We had a conference call at four thirty in the afternoon or maybe four. It was in the afternoon. And on the call that was led by Jason Miller. And at the time Jason said if you have a TV appearance tonight which I did on CNN, cancel it.
If you’re on the radio, cancel it. If you’re being interviewed by anybody in the news media cancel it. We’re having a meeting. We’re going to figure it out. We’ll have a call again tomorrow at 10 and we’ll get back to you. But we need 24 hours of dead silence. That seems to be what’s happening again. Now I had three people on. Two from the campaign and one from the White House today. All have canceled. So Steven K. Bannon, now what?
Bannon: Look, I think it’s not going to be on Twitter that with the haters that this thing’s going to be settled. Look he’s commander in chief. He’s the head of our government. The most important thing and I think President Trump they’re doing it right now at the White House is to take a deep breath and show that you got command of the government. I think you got to show the markets that. You’ve got to show other world leaders that.
You have to show the people in the country. And I don’t think we could have a better guy than Donald J. Trump to be in the saddle. So the first thing to do is don’t panic. Just stick to the stick to the plan. Your commander chief you get a good infrastructure around you. Make sure we get command of the government. Make sure that everything’s going according to plan. You have to do it obviously from the residence.
But you’ve got complete communication so I think it’s take a deep breath and and what’s the plan. And there’s two things. Number one, the campaign can all be done digitally. You don’t have to be on a plane flying around. I would argue you could have more leverage in doing things digitally. You can reach more people. Talk to more people and not spend time on planes etcetera. So I think you can practice more for debate prep. You can do all the campaign stuff you want to do you don’t have to go anywhere.
You can do it all from the White House. Number two, the command of the government and to make sure the markets understand that everything’s fine. It’s just another day at the office. Which it is. So I think the continuity and to do that is the number one most important message he can send. I actually disagree with not sending people out this morning. I think they should send people out with that message.
Fredericks: Agreed.
Bannon: Take a deep breath. Donald Trump’s a big boy. He’s been a great commander-in-chief. He hasn’t gotten us in any shooting wars. He’s confronted the enemies we needed to confront. Iran and the Chinese Communist Party. He’s worked for peace. He’s been nominated three times now but people who don’t love him with the Nobel Peace prize. Just stick to the program. Take a deep breath. It’s just another speed bump. And we’re used to getting speed bumps.
That is to me the most important thing and to settle the markets today and to make sure that people and nobody run around with their hair on fire. Just stick to the plan. Don’t worry about the campaign right now. Worry about the government. Just get everything settled get everything sorted. Have a bunch of meetings telephonically. You know you got you got Mark Meadows and great people at the White House. I don’t think they ever get enough credit because it’s like Dienbien Phu over there every day. They’re taking incoming fire. McEnany is terrific. She’s unflappable.
Mark Meadows, Mark he’s an unflappable guy. They got Stephen Miller. They got a really just terrific team. Just hunker down. And number one is let’s make sure the markets know. I’d make some phone calls to the to the head trading desk to make sure treasury Mnuchin just take it like it’s another day at the office. Number one. Number two. You figure out all the campaign stuff. You got two weeks to the next debate. It’s going to be fine.
I can go through a whole detailed plan shows you how you can actually do it and even more effectively. I think obviously the Trump voters and other people would rally to you doing digital rallies etc. obviously. Number three, is he’s got some great doctors over there etc. Just make sure you’re doing everything to monitor this. To pivot, we’re going to have on the show today Dr. Yan.
Since mid-January, Steven K. Bannon this year unlike any other person in this country or any other media person in this country has taken this virus very seriously. This is a serious thing. And why is this serious thing? Because this came from the Chinese Communist Party. You know you called it the China Virus the other night and made a couple of passing references. But I think it’s now time.
And I hope that just because they’re clicking the champagne glasses over in Beijing and the Global Times the editor, that hack which is the tabloid mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party was out there the very first thing mocking the United States. Mocking the president. Mocking where we are. It’s very evident and it’s obvious and we know this for a fact, that this came from a Chinese Communist Party laboratory.
Whether it was a deliberate biological weapon that was deliberately launched or if it was a gain of function experiment that they weren’t capable of monitoring and maintaining that somehow slipped out the back door and slipped out on one of the personnels. That’s a topic for a different day. But we know it came from a Chinese Communist Party laboratory.
We’ve got witnesses to that fact like Dr. Yan who’s a witness of fact of her time the at the reference lab in Hong Kong and the coordination with the Beijing CCP. It’s called the COVID-19 not COVID-20 virus for a reason. This started in the year 2019. I hope this is a wake-up call for everybody in the government that’s playing footsies with the Chinese Communist Party and everybody in the rest of the country that hasn’t gotten the message that we had the greatest economy right on fire for strivers. For the African-Americans.
For Hispanics. For working-class people. For people who didn’t go to college. Lowest unemployment wages finally starting to rise because it was a combination of President Trump’s immigration policies, his tax policies, his trade policy, and his manufacturing policy. It was all coming together when in in late December or early January this virus got out and they exacerbated and it spread throughout the world and then they sucked up all the PPE to make even worse.
And I think now it’s time to to hold them accountable to how this happened. And I think no matter what the media says Trump has got terrific people in his cabinet. He’s got great people in these agencies. It’s just another day at the office. And I think treasury ought to be in communications with the capital markets. The defense department ought to be in communication with our allies.
Pompeo, I think he’s still in Europe just having been not having a meeting with Pope Francis as Pope Francis cuts a deal with the Chinese Communist Party. You got Mike Pompeo and you got Esper. You got some solid people. Just another day at the office. Continuity of government and let’s get things done. Today take a breath and then figure out how you come growing back on the campaign.
Listen to the full show here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iOSn3z0Q0Q&feature=youtu.be
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