Republican Rep. Pete King unleashed a blistering attack on alt-right hero Steve Bannon on Wednesday, branding him a “phony” and a “disheveled drunk” who does not deserve a role in national politics.
“I don’t think Steve Bannon adds anything positive at all to the dialogue in the country,” the Long Island lawmaker said on MSNBC about President Trump’s former top adviser.
“I don’t know who can identify with him, and to see him on the stage this week with a big American flag behind him, he looked like a disheveled drunk that wandered onto the national stage,” he continued, referring to Bannon’s campaign appearance on behalf of failed Alabama Senate candidate and accused perv Roy Moore.
King said Bannon, whom he also called the “phony type from Goldman Sachs,” should be kicked out of the GOP because of his declaration of war on the Republican establishment.
“For him to be a major voice in politics is wrong. We should shut him, we should cut him off. I would say this whether he was a Democrat or Republican,” he said.
And he accused Bannon of purposely stoking racial divisions to fire up the white nationalist wing of the party after the violence during the neo-Nazi and alt-right rally this past summer in Charlottesville, Virginia.
“After Charlottesville, he was saying racial division could be good for the country,” King said.
The veteran congressman added that he was not afraid that Bannon could hurt him politically despite Bannon’s boasts that he would find candidates to challenge establishment Republicans in primary elections.
“I will fight anybody, and Steve Bannon posing as some kind of above the establishment [figure], he’s more establishment than anyone, but a phony,” King said.
Bannon enthusiastically embraced Moore despite lurid allegations of sexual misconduct and assault lodged against him by at least eight women.
The Breitbart chief on Tuesday predicted Moore would beat Democrat Doug Jones by 5 to 10 percentage points.