MEAWW.COM / NEWS / HUMAN INTEREST

Steve Bannon says Trump will go 'full animal' on opponents after Mueller cleared him of colluding with Russia

Bannon said that Trump will 'come off the chains' and use the outcome of the report to 'bludgeon' his adversaries in the lead-up to the 2020 polls

BY NAMRATA TRIPATHI

UPDATED FEB 21, 2020

Former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon on Monday said that President Donald Trump will "go full animal" on his political opponents after Special Counsel Robert Mueller in his investigation found no evidence of the Trump campaign's alleged collusion with Russia.

Bannon said that Trump will "come off the chains" and use the outcome of the report to "bludgeon" his adversaries in the lead-up to the 2020 polls. The former Trump administration official said that he believes the Republican President will use Mueller's report to neuter all ongoing investigation pertaining to him in Congress.

President Donald Trump speaks on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Oval Office of the White House, January 28, 2017, in Washington, DC. Also pictured, (from left) White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, Vice President Mike Pence, and White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon. (Getty Images)

Bannon, while speaking to Yahoo News, said: "When I saw no new indictments — I thought, Oh my God! They didn't indict anybody regarding the Flynn investigation, they didn't indict Don Jr!"

"Maybe [Mueller] could have details about obstruction of justice that are not indictable, but are meaningful. But right now, it looks like they have nothing," Bannon continued. "If the Mueller report doesn't have details about obstruction of justice, Trump will say: 'We're not dealing with [House Judiciary Chairman] Jerry Nadler'."

Special counsel Robert Mueller walks with his wife Ann Mueller on March 24, 2019, in Washington, DC. Special counsel Robert Mueller has delivered his report on alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election to Attorney General William Barr. (Getty Images)

Bannon made the statements from Rome during a tour of Europe aimed at uniting nationalist and populist parties across the continent.

The media executive said that although Democrats are requesting the release of the full report, Attorney General Bill Barr will simply refer them back to Mueller. Bannon added that he believed all along that Mueller would not find anything.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr (L) leaves after a meeting at the West Wing of the White House March 21, 2019, in Washington, DC. Key law-enforcement officials in Washington are preparing for the release of the report by special counsel Robert Mueller. (Getty Images)

The former White House aide said that he had even advised Trump to not discredit Mueller, believing that the investigation would exonerate the President. Bannon, while talking to the outlet, said that the Democrats were "reduced to tears" by the report and slammed news networks for its coverage.

"On 'Rachel Maddow', she went 10 minutes into her show before the words 'no indictment' crossed her lips," he said. "On CNN, they're in the mumble tank. They're crestfallen. They thought this would be it."

Republicans, after the release of the report, have now begun asking for a counter-investigation.

A senior White House official, while talking to Daily Mail on Monday, said: "If we're all serious about getting to the truth and not just scoring political points, you really have to be willing to investigate the investigators after something this far-reaching falls apart."