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tv   CNN Special Report  CNN  July 22, 2022 6:00pm-7:00pm PDT

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the uvalde school board has cancelled tomorrow's meeting into whether to decide to fire pete arredondo. they're doing so at the request of his attorney. they will meet at a later date with arredondo still on leave. "divided we fall" starts right "divided we fall" starts right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >> announcer: the following is a cnn special report. his vision is almost mess yannick. >> you're witnessing a political realignment. >> cnn investigating steve bannon and a political movement based on lies. >> he knows who won the 2020 election. >> this illegitimate biden regime. >> you sow some doubt and create a movement. >> from american politics -- >> steve bannon was the one that i heard say, you've got to get involved grass roots. >> it's about dividing this
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country. >> -- to the world stage. >> let them call you racist. >> wear it as a badge of honor. >> he studied actual propagandists. >> steve bannon, the singest most dangerous american who came our way. >> his role leading up to january 6th. >> it's not going to happen like you think it's going to happen. >> he is comparing it to the revolutionary war. >> all i can say is strap in. >> and his master plan for upcoming elections. >> we're going to count them. >> with rare interviews. >> bannon was calling the plays. >> mr. bannon, why do you continue to push the lie that the 2020 election was stolen. >> it's not a lie. >> is this the end of democracy? >> we will govern for 100 years. >> "steve bannon: divided we fall." ♪ >> would you like a copy of the constitution?
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>> stacy, a newcomer to politics, is a local precinct chair in dekalb county, georgia. >> this is time to get involved. we've had a bunch of people who have had it. no more. when the censorship started just in front of your eyes, the economy, things going down in schools, i said, you know what? this is craziness. >> with stacy and i being friends, we would talk amongst ourselves. we would say, what is going on? what's happening to our country, our children? >> reporter: both republicans and first-time candidates, both running for seats in georgia's house of representatives, both inspired to run by one man. >> i was just kind of going through the channels and i landed on this guy. and i was like, god, he looks familiar. who is that? i recognize him. and it was steve bannon. >> we have a unique, once -- not nay generation -- lifetime
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opportunity to destroy this left wing globalist cabal. >> steve bannon was the one that i heard say, you've got to get involved grass roots. instead of y'all complaining -- and i remember calling and talking to stacy about it. i was like, maybe we should go and do some local stuff. >> and how did you two go from that to becoming candidates? >> we ask ourselves that daily. >> i say, what am i doing? >> did you know much about him before that, his involvement with trump's campaign, the white house, all of that? >> no. >> no. >> steve bannon has never been elected to any office, never confirmed by congress for any position, but potentially has more influence on the political direction of the nation today than almost anyone besides donald trump. >> we believe in the ballot box. we believe in fair and free and transparent elections. and we're winning everywhere. we're going to win 80-1 hundred-seat pickup in the house of representatives. we're going to win the senate. we're going to win the
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governorships. we're going to win the state legislatures. you're witnessing a political realignment and we will govern for 100 years after we win 100 seats. >> bannon sees himself as the narrator in a great, grand conspiracy of his own devising. >> steve bannon is the intellectual and cultural navigator for the modern-day trump era republican party, setting the agenda even more than donald trump. >> this is illegitimate. >> bannon sets that agenda through his daily show, "war room." the podcast version is often among the top three political podcasts on apple. >> the whole reason we started the 6:00 show, "battleground" was to focus particularly on the primary and the run-up to this november where we're going to have destruction of the democratic party. >> his pathway to destroy the democratic party, control who runs the elections, by putting
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the ultra-maga in charge. >> it is about who counts the votes. and guess what? we're going to count them because we've got the election officials that are showing up. >> one thing that stopped the overthrow of the 2020 election was that republican precinct workers said, no. they said, we're not going to overturn what was a valid election. i think bannon saw that and said, if donald trump runs in 2024 and the same thing happens, i want to make sure that we have people in those positions that will overturn the election for trump, even if he loses it. >> bannon insists he wants every vote to be counted legally. but his entire movement is based on the lie that donald trump, not joe biden, actually won the 2020 election. >> we will never concede. we will never say this election was not stolen. >> inspired to be involved in politics until this last election. >> and what about that election inspired you? >> to see all the anomalies
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during the election. there's no way biden could have ever won an election. he didn't campaign. the most unpopular election. if you believe that was a fair election, i mean, i just can't help you. >> the truth is, it was a safe, fair, and legitimate election. yet tens of millions of trump fans just don't believe it. >> steve bannon has had a great influence on where my party, the republican party, has gone. he has a type of politics that is about hatred. it's about dividing this country and generating distrust of our institutions. >> beyond just spreading disinformation, bannon motivates. >> everybody should be a precinct committeeman. now is the time to get in power. >> i thought, okay, a precinct committeeman. >> and he has inspired an entire army of political neophytes to take over the entire republican party.
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>> i have to do something. i just can't sit around. >> far right candidates who believe in election conspiracy theories flock to bannon's "war room" to lower level officials, to members of congress, even senate hopefuls. >> join the crew, get a r.h.i.n.o. hunting permit. >> how are these people in public light? how are they seeking office? bannon's carved out a space in the republican party for these folks to have a seat at the table. >> of the more than 100 maga politicians who have appeared on bannon's "warroom," more than two dozen have won their primary races so far. >> bannon's approach to everything is, how can i weaponize this? how can i take this energy and redirect it toward my own goals? >> it seems almost diabolically disingenuous. >> i think that's a term he would happily embrace. he loves the image of being seen as this darth vader figure,
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pulling the strings from behind the scenes. >> we've moved into a post-objective reality society. >> ben harnwell is the international editor for bannon's "warroom." >> he would say, perhaps these are the facts. >> based in rome, appears on the show and admits bannon's version of the so-called facts is what's covered on "war room." >> he has an ability to identify what the number one headline, topic of conversation should be, and bringing people on board, and basically feigning, as it were, the national debate. >> he's a disciplist delivering the maga movement. >> brad parscale, trump's former campaign manager, gave cnn a rare interview to talk about his mentor, steve bannon. >> his message, his ability to carry that message and understand the people, that's why he's good at telling the
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story. it's why people follow him in the millions online. >> in terms of messaging, it seems to me that bannon uses fear a lot. >> well, i mean, fear is one of the great taxes of all time. fear sells. >> using fear has served bannon well since his days making dark political documentaries in the early 2000s. >> some of the figures he studied closest and admired from the past are actual nazi propagandists. >> lenny -- was hired by adolf hitler to make films glorifying the nazi party ahead of world war ii. politics aside, bannon said xi was a master of communication. >> he shows me once shot for shot how he was copying in his own films what she had done in her films. so, gives you an idea of the depth of his belief in propaganda. >> but it wasn't until he took
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over brieitbart in 2012 that he found his way to spread fear and motivate millions. >> truth and fact are not words used there. it's a narrative. >> a spokesperson for breitbart at the time watched as bannon's populist website began to steer the republican party in an alt right direction. >> when you look at the racist comments from the breitbart audience was littered across their pages. >> breitbart's audience would grow to millions of readers per month. >> one of his great insights was that these sorts of people can be radicalized politically if you incentivize them to come over to become part of your army, to read what it is you're writing, and then to point them toward a goal. >> bannon's mantra is, flood the zone. he would flood the news cycle through breitbart and find persuadable voters through a company he helped launch called
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cambridge analytica. christopher wily, now a whistleblower, was its leader of research. >> ultimately to identify and recruit people, and these people served as the foundation for the alt right movement. >> through cambridge analytica, as early as 2014, bannon was pre-testing u.s. political campaign platforms like drain the swamp, deep state, and build the wall. brittney kaiser was the director of business development. she's turned whistleblower. >> as the company became more and more successful, it became more obvious that it was specifically to just promote his political ideals. >> his vision is almost m messionic in the way he views the need for total systems change in the western world. >> bannon had his message. he had his army. but to truly change the country, he would need the perfect politician.
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instrument. but he's an armor-piercing show. >> bannon would use trump like ammunition, feeding him into the ready-to-fire army of online followers that bannon had been molding for years. >> millions of people out there who spend all day online get whipped into a frenzy. what bannon was doing, as he told me, was to try to harness that energy specifically to build an online army on behalf of trump. >> trump plowed through a republican field. >> thank you. >> and now faced what polls showed was an unbeatable foe, hillary clinton. less than three months before the election, this unconventional, armor-piercing candidate fired his campaign manager and put steve bannon in charge. >> tonight, the most dangerous political operative in america, the new ceo of donald trump's
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campaign. >> he will make the nixon administration look like mary poppins. he's a dangerous man. >> bannon would make trump's message focus on one woman. >> lock her up, lock her up, lock her up. >> what she's done, they should lock her up. >> i think the narrative against hillary was one of the strongest suits. >> brad parscale was digital director of trump's 2016 campaign and for a time ran his 2020 campaign. he had a front-row seat to it all. >> what did bannon bring to you? >> narrative. bannon was calling the plays. what steve was an expert was at was verbal war fire. when to counterpunch, when to take the punches, when to lean in, when to lean away. and all these decisions lead to political victories. all of that roots from the inception of that narrative. >> i've never seen a politician in my lifetime like trump
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engender the kind of dedication from his supporters. and part of that is bannon's understanding almost like a maestro what notes to hit with them. >> bannon would write the tune brad parscale and an army of digital warriors would use facebook on a scale never seen before. >> hillary clinton made 66,000 ads online. i made 5.8 million. the only person that could prove commercial other than donald trump was bannon. bannon would look at every commercial and be like, this isn't angry enough. that's too soft. turn it to this. say this, brad. >> you know what's deplorable? hillary clinton viciously demonizing hard-working people like you. >> bannon's targeted strategy appeared to be working. then came a bombshell. >> donald trump uncensored, caught on tape, speaking in vulgar language about kissing
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and groping women. >> and when you're a star, they let you do it. you can do anything you want. >> whatever you want. >> grab them by the -- you can do anything. >> i remember the billy bush tape, all of a sudden you see people disappearing from buildings. they thought it was over. bannon delivered a counterpunch. he was the oracle. >> the most outrageous, audacious thing he could think to do was to pull in these clinton accusers. >> bannon's defense against the tape, to go on offense. hours before the second presidential debate, steve bannon brought together four women claiming abuse at the hands of the clintons, which the clintons have long denied. >> why did you say -- >> why don't you ask bill clinton that. >> my girl, paula jones, the first one, bill clinton raped me, right, and just boom. they hit it. it was perfect.
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>> just beyond the forced smiles, there they were. >> all of a sudden, the story on cable news isn't donald trump and the "access hollywood" tape. if you look at the photos the press took of everyone standing on the side, you'll see steve bannon in the corner with a smirk on his face at the moment. you'll see the genius of steve bannon. >> bannon staged a media coup. the trump campaign never looked back. >> right now, a historic moment, cnn projects donald trump wins the presidency. >> i went to the president and said, sir, you need to get dressed. you've won. i remember bannon standing right there next to me, and bannon was like, yeah, you won, sir. everybody got pretty emotional obviously. it's one of those moments i'll never forget. i could see bannon was proud. everybody was really just proud. the president walked up to me, and he said, good job, brad, you really did a great job. but just don't stand to me on stage. >> because you're too tall. >> i'm too tall.
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that's the last thing he said to me before he was president of the united states is, brad, don't stand next to me. >> what was bannon thinking at the time? >> that he created this political revolution and now was going to have the kind of power he had only dreamed about. >> bannon was now chief strategist and senior counselor to the president of the united states. >> this american carnage stops right here and stops right now. >> and bannon wasted no time. >> the white house on his big board, he had, like, 100 things he wanted to get done in the first 100 days. >> the first year of the trump white house was total chaos. none of these people who were coming in, including steve bannon, had any idea how to govern. the chaos didn't really bother him. and also he was fuelling it. >> he wanted no aspect of presidential power and influence to be off limits.
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>> he even got a seat on the national security council through trump's executive order. it elevated bannon to a position that had long been limited to top generals and senior cabinet officials. >> we didn't win an election to bring the country together. >> i think most people in the white house hated bannon's guts because he's a difficult guy to work with. he's explosive. he's a back stabber. he's leaking in the press both about how great he is and about how bad his enemies are. and ultimately, i think that's really why he only lasted seven months in the white house. >> who was running the country became the butt of jokes. >> senator steve bannon. >> "saturday night live" portrayed bannon as the grim reaper, trump as his puppet. >> when "time" magazine named bannon, "the great manipulator,"
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he had violated an unwritten rule of getting more press than donald trump. >> the "saturday night live" skits with trump and the small desk, none of that was good for bannon's future in the white house. >> neither was his constant battle with trump's family. bannon would be fired. >> when bannon left the white house, there was an immense feeling of relief. with bannon gone, maybe the rhetoric would become more civil. that ended up not being the case at all. and in very short order, bannon was back on the outside helping lead the mob in continuing to advance the maga movement. this.. is the planning effect. this is how it feels to know you have a wealth plan that covers everything that's important to you. this is what it's like to have a dedicated fidelity advisor looking at your full financial picture. making sure you have the right balance of risk and reward.
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in the final weeks of the 2020 campaign, steve bannon was already talking about a stolen election. >> you see the ballot harvesting that's going on. what are your lying eyes telling you? >> but now in a leaked recording of a meeting three days before election day, bannon is heard outlining the very trump donald trump would use if he lost. >> what trump needs to do is declare victory. right. he's going to declare victory. that doesn't mean he's the winner. he's just going to say he's the winner. >> bannon admitted the stolen
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election lie would be just that. trump would lose, and trump would falsely claim he won. >> frankly, we did win this election. >> steve bannon would go on to back the lie with his every breath. >> they know he stole this. >> he is comparing it to the revolutionary war. >> grow up. we're in a war right now. >> there is such an intimidation factor by steve bannon and those around him. >> this is breaking news at this hour -- >> arizona had gone for biden. bannon attacked the vote and aimed his stolen election ire at local officials, like the maricopa county board of supervisors. >> the guys in maricopa county, you can hide, but you're going to be found. >> bill gates, a republican and chair of the board suddenly found himself being threatened for certifying a fair election. >> my colleagues and i have been subjected to many threats. there was a guillotine that was set up outside of the arizona capitol here for the board of
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supervisors. >> we're here for reality. trump won a massive landslide on the 3rd of november. >> he's a really smart guy. he knows who won the 2020 election, but he understands that there is real power in that moment after the election of stoking that fear. you sow some doubt, and you create a movement. >> wrap your arms around donald j. trump. >> bannon threw his weight and power behind the stop the steal movement. his show financially supported protests. then, behind the scenes, bannon circled a date on the calendar, january 6th, for an entirely new plan. >> we're going to run the green bay sweep. >> dubbed by bannon the green bay sweep. the plan called for right wing members of congress to object to the certification of the election when lawmakers convened on january 6th. trump attorney john eastman outlined the legal theory. >> we need to bolster the
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authority of our leaders in congress to not accept a fraudulently certified slates of electors. >> according to the plot, vice president mike pence could then refuse to certify the votes and send the election back to the states, where fake electors would flip the vote for trump. >> donald j. trump of the state of florida, number of votes, 11. >> if pence decides it can't be certified, kicks it back to state legislatures, then that election's over. >> "war room" would talk about mike pence in 37 shows in the lead-up to january 6th. eastman was a frequent guest. the plot is now part of an investigation by the department of justice and the january 6th committee. >> live in our nation's capitol, you're in the field headquarters of one of the small divisions of the bloodless coup. >> bannon sought to pressure lawmakers and told his listeners to do the same. >> step by step by step, day by
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day, understanding we're all going to converge on that point on the sixth. >> it was, as he told them, their moment to save america. >> i've met so many people in my life that said, man, if i was in the revolution, i would be with washington, right? or i would be in the civil war. well, you know, this is where -- this is for your time in history. >> on january 5th, bannon and trump would speak by phone at least twice. and bannon joined a meeting of trump's inner circle at the willard hotel according to a congressional subpoena in an effort to persuade members of congress to block the certification of the election. >> it's not going to happen like you think it's going to happen, okay? it's going to be quite extraordinarily different. and all i can say is strap in. "the war room," a posse, you have made this happen. tomorrow is game day. strap in. let's get ready. >> the next day on january 6th, as a mob gathered outside the capitol, steve bannon was in his "war room" studio telling the
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vice president to execute the plan and overturn a fair election. >> play has been called. mike pence, run the play. take the football. take the handoff from the quarterback. >> the votes for president of the united states are as follows. >> pence refused. >>. [ crowd chanting, hang mike pence ] >> the court have caused the vice president his life. he fled the chambers, down a back staircase, as an angry mob searched for him. history would record it as a failed coup. the vice president upheld the constitution. but steve bannon's listeners have a different view. >> on the day that pence could have helped out, which was january 6th, if i'm not mistaken, he proved himself to be an establishment person. he didn't stick up for -- and that changed a lot, including myself. >> he stood up for the constitution. >> he -- in my personal opinion,
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what i took from this, is that you know what? pence isn't the kind of guy that i'd hoped he was. he's part of the establishment. >> these three women and millions like them are what bannon hopes is the future of the republican party and the united states. bannon calls it the precinct strategy. >> we're going to take over everything from school boards all the way up to the house and the senate. >> he is really talking about from the ground up remaking a party that is a trump-loyal, maga-loyal kind of party. >> i want to start with dan shulz, precinct strategy. >> the precinct strategy's author is a local, dan shulz, an arizona attorney. >> if we conservatives don't take over the republican party, we're going to lose our republic. >> president trump comes out and endorses the precinct strategy. >> his step-by-step tutorial for taking over republican politics is now considered almost gospel, inspiring thousands of believers in the election lie to get
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involved. gop leaders in more than 20 counties, in mostly battleground states, don't see an end. they see a spike in participation. >> the precinct committee, dan shulz, oh, my gosh, i'm calling everybody i know. did you even know we have a precinct in my neighborhood? i'm the committee person now. just feeling, hey, i'm actually doing something. >> they are all doing something because of bannon. jody is a long shot, running for stacey abrams' old seat in the georgia house of representatives. wendy is running for georgia's house district 52 and may actually win. stacy is now a republican precinct chair, registering voters and recruiting poll watchers. >> i'm a precinct committee person. we need folks. we'll have somebody get in touch with you. my friends and decided we didn't want to sit around anymore. it's time to take it back, and
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that's what we're doing. >> without exception, they believe joe biden lost in november 2020. >> did biden get more than obama? no way. no way. >> they said he got the most votes of any president ever. and i just remember the energy around obama. and there was -- i just didn't see that lining up. >> for me, my thing with it is i just would like to know what happened. and i do think that the evidence is there, and it's not being seen. >> we watched american society go from trust in and reliance upon institutions. now they don't trust it. and people like trump and bannon have convinced them that what they see with their eyes and hear with their ears is false. and it's genuinely created two alternate realities existing simultaneously in this country.
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>> nowhere is that more evident than michigan. >> i happened to stumble upon steve bannon and dan shulz. >> beth pe douala answered bannon's call. she wants to support candidates who believe the election was stolen. >> thousands and thousands of ballots that were dropped off in the middle of the night in detroit. >> michigan, precinct delegates had even more power because they, not the general public, determined the winners of some primary elections. that is how two election deniers, promoted by steve bannon, are now the republican candidates for secretary of state and attorney general. >> i've got to go a superstar in michigan, matt. you are a hero and patriot. >> ultra maga candidates line up to campaign on bannon's podcast. >> thank you, steven. and thanks for helping to introduce me to pennsylvania and america as well.
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>> doug mastriano, now the republican candidate for governor in pennsylvania, has told bannon, should he win, he will control the state's elections. >> as governor, i get to certify any and all machines in the state. >> though it's impossible to predict what will happen in november, the real danger is that ultra maga detach from reality could take control of elections and impact whose votes count, whose do not, essentially eliminating the democratic process. >> if in fact this is an attempt to take away the vote of the people for a preordained outcome for steve bannon or donald trump or their followers like, then that's as antidemocratic and antiamerican as it gets. >> but bannons actions do not end at the u.s. borders. he's seeking a new world order, based on a scary past. >> steve bannon was the single most dangerous american who came our way.
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here's why tribal leaders urge you to vote yes on prop 27. the act provides hundreds of millions every year for permanent solutions to homelessness, mental health and addiction in california. prop 27 supports financially disadvantaged tribes that don't own big casinos. by taxing and regulating online sports betting for adults 21 and over, we can protect tribal sovereignty and finally do something about homelessness in california. vote yes on prop 27.
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. for proof of just how far right the republican party has shifted, you only need to look at the conservative political action committee, or cpac. this year, for the first time, cpac was held in europe and chose hungary, and had its authoritarian leader, viktor orban speak. he has clamped down on the press and taken control of his country's course. >> translator: we have to take back the institutions in washington and brussels. >> republicans aided up. steve bannon not only admires orban but advised him for years. bannon's work is not limited to
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the united states, and he has given new light to europe's very dark past. >> what i've been working on since i went over there in 2018 is that these groups have to work together. >> starting in 2018, after his firing from the white house, bannon has been trying to get populist leaders across europe to join forces, turning the continent back decades. >> looking back over the last 70 years, over the post-world war ii period, in my view, steve bannon was the single most dangerous american who came our way. >> bannon travelled across europe, meeting with populist leaders, firing up populist crowds. >> the tide of history is with us, and it will compel us to victory after victory after victory. >> promoting the growth of what he calls a judeo-christian west. >> they're the kind of people that the judaeo-christian west
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has developed. they have a voice in trump, bolsonaro, and others. >> bannon would call this push the movement. >> the thing we're going to do with the movement is like in the united states before i took over the trump campaign. we're actually going to provide the tools of the building blocks for victory. >> what is the movement? >> the movement. the movement is an idea to create more like a movement of separate nationalist political parties around europe so that they can all fight together on the issues of common interest. common position, obviously with regards to illegal immigration. >> i'm going to go first to ben harnwell in rome. >> ben harnwell is steve bannon's international editor, based in rome. >> it's interesting to me you would bring in all these far right politicians from different countries. >> they're not far right. >> they are. around bannon's extravagant
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recruiting tables in europe were far right leaders from more than a half dozen countries. >> father, we're gathered around this table as friends and comrades -- >> to bless the gathering, bannon brought along maga far right arizona congressman paul gosar, the movement's unofficial ambassador. >> we were scared. >> wolfgangish ger is germany's former ambassador to the u.s. >> you called him or described his actions as poisonous. >> yes. >> what do you mean by that? >> poisoning the political atmosphere in europe. we thought he is now going to bring a virus back into europe, which we had hoped to have gotten rid of after world war ii. >> what bannon wants is to replace every progressive european leader with a far right autocrat, like hungary's orban. >> if we had 27 viktor orbans, the current prime minister of hungary, across 27 member states of the european union, there
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would not be a european union. >> bannon inflamed tensions in europe, as muslim refugees from africa and the middle east flooded across borders. bannon called it an invasion. he was labelled a racist and didn't care. >> let them call you racist. let them call you zen foebs. let them call you nativists. wear it like a badge of honor. >> wear it like a badge. >> and you know why he said that? when you fight the establishment, they will come back at you and call you white supremacist, neonazi and racist, fascist. you know you have won because they have no arguments to come back against your actual policy platform. >> to cement the movement to change europe's culture, bannon sought to create a school in this 13th century italian monastery. >> we call a modern gladiator school. >> a modern gladiator school? >> that's right. >> that conjures up fighting and
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violence to me? >> i don't think it really does. >> gladiator school? >> yeah. i think what it comes up to is the idea that if you're talking about cultural warriors, we're having a finishing school for cultural warriors. >> bannon and harnwell's group, dhi, got approval to rent and restore this national treasure, founded by peaceful monks in the year 1211. politicians were stunned. >> shocked. we feared that the school could become the operational center of national populism in europe. it was quite scary. he wanted to implant a school to teach how to hate, how to deceive, and how to divide our societies. >> the school never taught a single student. italy's government accused the dhi of lying on its application and kicked them out of the monastery. >> americans should know that
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bannon here lied and forged. >> but it is -- who is facing fraud charges. >> it is important that you see the horrific miscarriage of justice that the italian state inflicted in this action, right, and as the basis on which we have appealed. >> and you believe it was pure political? >> well, it was 100% political. >> among the allegations, dhi never paid its rent to the government. in fact, cnn confirmed this letter from a bank that supposedly verified dhi's financing for the project was fraudulent. dhi also told the ministry of culture it had five years experience running a cultural museum, as was required. but we went to the location of that so-called museum with an italian investigative reporter. >> so, this is the museum that he wassing m managing. >> yes. the museum of -- the museum of st. nicolas.
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>> and you're not kidding. this is a stable. >> yeah. >> it's filled with hay. >> a stable for donkeys. >> and obviously very well-used by the donkeys. >> yeah, completely. >> we went to it. >> yeah. >> it was a stable. >> yeah. >> for a donkey. filled with hay. >> yeah. so, you actually ran a museum there. >> yeah. there wasn't a museum there in the stable. the museum was in the chapel, which is under lock and key on the floor above. >> despite our request, harnwell offered no proof of any museum behind this locked door. >> so, we went to find the priest in the past of the church. we asked him if it was a museum. and he told us it never had been a museum. >> bannon's gladiator school and the movement might be over, but some far right nationalist parties are still surging, and bannon is still spreading his praise for automatic rulers. >> putin speaks the other night.
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but if you read it, it's so logical. putin today gave a serious talk -- had a serious talk with the russian people that was a level of seriousness you will not see with the clowns on capitol hill. >> bannon is very much aware of what vladimir putin has done and respects, admires that appeal to blood and soil nationalism. those kinds of ideas can have power. and that's something that ought to frighten us. [ sleep app ] and the end. you have now reached the end of the sleep app. you're the first person to actually do that. now i want to say congratulations, but it's also disappointing. what do you mean? that's it? i've got nothing left. hey if i were you, i'd try warm milk. enough out of you! hi!
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oh go.. is this really helping? good days start with good nights, so you may want to talk to your doctor about both. [ sleep app ] i'm still here. oh boy.
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then, tap to buy. that's it. no sales speak, no wasted time. go to vroom.com and pick your favorite. mr. bannon. >> steve bannon has been called liar, racist, evil. >> you're irrelevant, and you're a traitor to this country.
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>> he thinks it is a sign he's winning. >> it's not that there's a war between the rational republicans and the radical republicans. the radical side won. they took over the party. they're in control of the party. >> just look at the number of establishment republican lawmakers leaving office. election officials quitting. the number of republicans who believe an election was stolen and who don't believe that this -- [ screaming ] -- was carried out by trump supporters. >> i want to know the truth of what happened that day. >> show me the footage. >> yeah. >> yeah, show me the footage. >> i've seen the windows being broken and the people jumping through the windows. >> and who were the people breaking the windows? do we know? >> proud boys. >> do we know that? could they have been antifa? >> we know the names of them, actually. could they have been antifa? >> no, they weren't antifa. we know names of them. >> when the january 6th committee subpoenaed steve bannon to find out just what he knows about that day, he refused
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to comply and was indicted. for months bannon remained defiant, but on the brink of his trial, typical bannon an about-face, bannon said he would now testify. >> give me a date, a time, a room number, a microphone and a holy bible i can take the oath on. boom, deliver that and we'll see how good you are. >> that didn't matter to prosecutors. >> the judge has announced there is a verdict. >> bannon was convicted on both counts. he faces a minimum sentence of 30 days in jail. >> we may have lost a battle here today, but we're not going to lose this war. >> there's got to be some accountability here. these people believe that they are above the law. >> outside a recent hearing in his case, cnn caught up to steve bannon. >> why do you continue to push the lie that the 2020 election was stolen? >> it's not a lie. it's a fact. >> it's a lie. you have no proof. we've looked at all the facts. you don't have the facts, rudy doesn't have the facts. >> do me a favor, get this guy, i want to sit down with you this
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week, go through all the evidence. >> okay, how about friday? >> despite that pledge, the interview never happened. bannon ultimately ignored all our requests for interviews. before he was indicted for contempt, bannon was indicted on federal fraud charges for allegedly funneling a million dollars in public donations from a private build the wall foundation. donald trump granted him a pardon. bannon's alleged co-conspirators weren't so lucky. two have pleaded guilty. >> we're going to blow out this -- >> what bannon may be counting on most of all is the culmination of his political quest to take over how we vote, who counts the vote, and who wins. >> pray for our enemies. okay? pray for -- because we're going medieval on these people. we're going to savage our enemies. >> my greatest fear is that we have people who are elected who will tip the balance in the elections in 2024. if that happens, i think our democracy then will be truly
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teetering on the edge. >> if republicans win that power, if they win back control of congress in november, joe biden will be impeached. bannon's told me this. >> we're not going to rest until we decertify, decertify every biden electorate. >> is he dangerous to democracy? >> there's no question that he's dangerous to democracy. he seems to have no limits. >> he has divided his party with hate. he has divided his country with lies. bannon has vowed to tear it all down, divided he knows we fall. to work from here, there has to be someone here making sure everything is safe. secure. consistent. so log in from here. or here. assured that someone is here ready to fix anything. anytime. anywhere. even here. that's because nobody...
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this is "don lemon tonight" i'm laura coates in for don lemon. now, i bet many of you held on to maybe a glimmer of hope or maybe a glimmer of disbelief, not because you're naive but because you probably thought, man, there's no way the president of the united states really just did nothing. i mean, maybe he didn't do enough, but nothing? no. that's not possible. yet, there was that sneaking suspicion, we'll call it reality, that might indeed be the case. and last night we learned that

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