Nancy Pelosi's strategy to impeach Donald Trump is 'quite brilliant', says Steve Bannon
Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, on Wednesday, lauded the tactics deployed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in an effort to impeach President Donald Trump as "quite brilliant."
“The Democrats are so united in this,” the far-right strategist said while speaking to CBS news. “I disagree with her ideologically, but I think Nancy Pelosi is a master of political warfare and I think strategically what she’s done here is, from their perspective, quite brilliant”.
Pelosi launched an impeachment inquiry against President Trump in September after a whistleblower lodged a formal complaint, alleging that the president had sought favor from the Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky in a July call, and had asked him to investigate his political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden. The whistleblower also mentioned the presence of a quid pro quo in terms of US military aid being withheld from Ukraine until the favor was met.
Bannon's comments come ahead of the first public hearing of the impeachment inquiry, with the acting US ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor and State Department official George Kent set to testify before Congress.
Despite his appreciation for Pelosi, the former Trump White House member, argued that the impeachment hearings would ultimately prove to be positive for the president. Bannon added that the hearings would highlight his "America First" policy.
"If this is argued the way it should be argued, if the facts come out in the way I think the facts should come out, then this will serve as a predicate for people to understand the direction that he’s trying to take the country in," he said.
The White House, shortly after the whistleblower's complaint, had released a transcript of the controversial phone call between Trump and the Ukrainian leader, which confirmed that the president had asked for a favor from the foreign leader to probe Biden and his son Hunter. The White House, however, has argued that although aid to Ukraine was withheld, it was done to pressure other countries to invest more in aid to ease the burden on the US.