Bulwark Takes - Bannon Pleads Guilty for Border Wall Fraud, MAGA Goes Knives Out

Episode Date: February 11, 2025

Tim Miller talks the breaking news that Steve Bannon pleaded guilty for defrauding border wall donors, as MAGA loyalist Mo Brooks calls him out, saying, "I prefer listening to honest people."

Hey everybody, we've got some breaking news. Steve Bannon has pled guilty to defrauding donors in his private border wall scheme. For those who don't recall, this was, it's been a long-running case now. It's one that Bannon was indicted for while he was on a boat. Former special advisor to the president, Steve Bannon, was aboard the boat Thursday when he had been taken into custody by the United States Postal Inspection Service. With this mysterious Chinese big money investor and a lot of his efforts and MAGA efforts, this guy who has himself since been the target of federal authorities, and that's a wholeher story getting into this.

But when Bannon was arrested on the boat, it was it was for this, right, which was defrauding people that that were regular MAGA, MAGA Americans, that were contributing money to a GoFundMe that was allegedly going to finish Trump's wall or build Trump's wall as part of the effort where they're complaining during the first term that people were blocking, that the Democrats were blocking or whatever Trump's wall. Obviously, almost all of this is nonsense. Republicans had total control like they do now back in the first part of Trump's term. And so if they wanted to build the wall, they could have. But that's, I guess, neither here nor there. The interesting element of this is that, you know,

Bannon admits fault in this case. He cuts a deal to avoid additional jail time. Remember, Bannon did serve prison time for evading a congressional subpoena. He was in Danbury. And you might remember that I was attending at his post-prison press conference a couple months ago. Do you have the Pookas on today or we have the Pearls? I'm clear. Pookas or Pearls? No Pookas or Pearls? No Pookas today.

This is Tim Miller, one of my favorite guys from MSNBC and the Bulwark. I do wonder, though, you were teaching civics. You know, you're out of prison. I wonder if you're any reformed looking back on the last January 6th and the fact that you at what we said, is that as the states requested, seven states requested never got to hang on a full a full a full review. This is because Vice President Pence didn't handle it correctly. in the clink, which as far as I'm concerned, I was so sympathetic of Bannon in the first jail instance would be totally wrong. But this is a general manner. As somebody that is supportive of criminal justice reform broadly, I don't think that people should be in prison for avoiding subpoenas. I think there should be other types of consequences, public service, fines, garnishing wages, etc., etc. But that's neither here nor there. own hard-earned income to pay yourself, I think is something that he deserved greater consequences

for than the subpoena. But, you know, this is kind of how the justice system works. I think what is interesting here that potentially has ramifications is that, know bannon for all his faults is a authentic advocate on the pot for the policies that the mega base wants so i i say that which is he lies to them he lies about the 2020 election all the time he obviously lied about wall, but like from a policy standpoint, like his viewpoint, his ideology is in line with the base voters in a way that John Thunes and Mike Johnson's and Elon Musk's are not, right? Like Bannon is much more aligned with this nationalist populist mega America first movement than a lot of these other key figures and so the weakening of him is a weakening of that movement and you

already have the a tweet here just for example from mo brooks mo brooks who really don't remember is a congressman from alabama he's one of the key instigators of the insurrection, was speaking at the rally on the Ellipse back on January 6th. Now our ancestors sacrificed their blood, their sweat, their tears, their fortunes, and sometimes their lives to give us, their descendants, an America that is the greatest nation in world history. So I have a question for you. Are you willing to do the same? A huge advocate for Trump, but he got crossways with Trump following the impeachment votes and the fact that he gets into another primary and took some positions that are counter to Trump. And so Brooks, you know, ends up getting kicked out of Congress by somebody that is more loyal. So here he is, just a little bit ago, tweeting, Steve Bannon of Trump and

War Room fame pleads guilty to first degree fraud. Question, will War Room listeners still take Bannon's word as gospel or will they figure out often what he said is to pad his own wallet? I prefer listening to honest people. That's Mo Brooks. And I think that is interesting. opening to people from who are conservative, who are MAGA, like Mo Brooks, who, you know, want to undermine them. Obviously, Bannon is in a big feud with Elon Musk now. It'll be interesting to see if Musk uses this to his favor. You know, once you've taken the L, once you pled guilty and admitted to the fact that you advanced a fraud on your own people. And it'd be one thing if Bannon was defrauding, I don't know, MSNBC hosts or, you know, whatever, non-binary indigenous, you know, illegal migrants or whatever group of people my war room listeners hate.

If he was defrauding them, they'd probably like it. But in this case, it was Bannon defrauding his own audience and admitting to it. So, you know, TBD on whether there's any consequences there. I think it is interesting that he has left himself open to this attack from people within the coalition. And in addition to that, he has a three-year conditional discharge, so he can't act up again. So watch out, Steve. Don't be breaking any laws. He's also banned from serving as an officer director of any charitable organization or nonprofit with assets in New York. So that's that. I'm sure some folks would have wanted to see him make a second trip up to the clink. But he has pled guilty, cut a deal, admitted to defrauding donors, and I think potentially left himself vulnerable to attacks from folks inside MAGA

world. And when they're food fighting, it's something we're going to be monitoring. So that's the breaking news here with Steve Bannon pleading guilty to defrauding donors in a fundraising effort to build a fake wall along the southern border. We'll be monitoring the news. We'll be seeing you all here soon. Peace.