howie: "breitbart" news editor-in-chief raheem kassam from "breitbart" london.iven steve bannon's extremely high profile, will "breitbart" news be seen as bannon news? >> i think that's what a lot of people will think. "breitbart" has a lot of different editors. it's never been and i don't think he want it to be the steve bannon news network. there have been people out there saying bannon this and bannon that. it's a team effort. we are a family. howie: one your editors wrote this week that bannon leaving the white house could be the beginning of the end of the trump presidency, the moment donald trump becomes arnold schwarzenegger as he did when he was governor of california. raheem: i don't think it's necessarily one person leaving. there have been lots people who left the white house since january 20. it's the trajectory of the white house. who's going in as well as who's going out. most of people would assess it's more moderate and centrist and what some people are calling west wing democrats. it's not just about one man out. it's about where the white house

i'm the editor of breitbart london, and that didn't run in breitbart london. you have a different solution to tackling radical islam, maybe he has a great idea of how to attack radical islam, but he simply doesn't have the same idea we have to do it, but why can't we criticize that view, you guys do that all the time. >> i think that's a whole part of this. >> yes. >> i guess the question i'm getting at, i take your point that a website has much ingredients to it, is that the way it's done there seems to suggest that the main problem with him is the desire to understand islam or doesn't share what we quoted, the bannon view that the entire religion of 1 billion-plus people is somehow -- >> no, hold on. it's not a religion of a billion-plus people. there are a billion-plus muslims. but they don't all subscribe to sharia. >> no, certainly. nor did i. >> you can't put them all in one box. everyone says this religion of a billion-plus people, they all believe different things. it's so unfair when we lump everybody in together and say this is who we're at war with.

breitbart ceo larry agreed. quote, breitbart's pace of global expansion will only accelerate with steve back. the sky's the limit. that's solov saying that. and then they go on and give some more of the background. so, it's now a done deal. we know where steve bannon is going to be spreading his influence and it could be very, very significant. >> oh, it's going to be hugely significant. and the idea that breitbart, by the way, to the masses a lot of people didn't realize how influential it was during the campaign, and it really exploded because of steve bannon. now, steve bannon might actually have more influence on the outside than he has on the inside. a lobbyist had just sent me a text a short time ago and said, listen, bottom line is bannon is really going to be more volatile on the outside and could push trump in ways that he was unable to do so in the inside. he is no longer encumbered by the west wing in the jared kushner -- >> exactly. he's in the white house and saw how the sausage was made. and now he

moments ago breitbart's bannon headline said this, bannon returns home to breitbart. breitbart is reporting he chaired the staff's editorial meeting already tonight. this comes after a senior "breitbart news" editor tweeted one word, war, after bannon got the axe. make no mistake thrks is a man that calls breitbart his killing machine. it will be bannon the barbarian. he's not going to go out peacefully. and we're seeing evidence of that already. moments ago bannon told the conservative weekly standard this, the trump presidency we fought for and won is over. and he also throws out this one. i feel jacked up. now i'm free. i've got my hands back on my weapons. i am definitely going to crush the opposition. i built a blanking machine at breitbart and now i'm about to go back knowing what i know and we're about to rev that machine up. bannon, the man who's been called the brains behind the president, one of the architects of trump's america first message, a man blamed for his o cosiness with the alt right. the president tonight at least publically is turning his back on

breitbart cover this. then there is a picture of donald trump standing with his arms folded listening to the families. and and just days he took the lead. it was showing conservative voters possible that he was going to pick up an issue important to them. but also showing voters in general that he sided with families and people who had been denied protection from the government that they had a right to expect had been promised they would receive. i think that is emotionally and in terms of the polls when he took over the election but is still that hillary clinton had history in her side, the first female nominee. at that would be hard for anyone to beat.but then i saw that trump had a real chance because he took on the media like no other republican candidate. [inaudible question] >> i was covering west coast campaign events for trump, bernie sanders, hilary, we try to give breitbart people at the ted cruz events. things like that. so in the primary stage i was mostly focused on the west coast and i would

bannon's return to breitbart. gabe, what do we think breitbart is going to become now? >> well, the most important thing to look at is that they are focused on the issue not the man. only to advance this populist nationalist agenda, which is tough on trade, very hard line on immigration and issues like that and again political correctness. trump was a vehicle for that but now that bannon is out and if trump waivers and the jared kushner wing of the white house gains influence and trump mod rates, we'll see breitbart go to war against donald trump. wheel steve bannon and donald trump had a close relationship and by all accounts idealogically they are very much in sync. if he believes donald trump is betraying this economic nationalist movement he's been a leader of, he'll use every tool he has, including brieitbart to fight back. donald trump is making what appears to be a powerful enemy out of steve bannon if donald trump changes on policy and you mentioned this foreign policy meeting that's taking place. steve bannon has been by my reporting a very vocal voice inside t

if he's chairman of breitbart and breitbart is kicking the president and he's also trying to have an inside relationship with the president. you can only go so far down that road before trump starts fooil feeling he is flimflam. so i certainly don't think this strengthens the president. i think it strengthens bannon in some respects. i think breitbart my discover it doesn't have quite as much influence that it thinks it has, some small percentage of the electorate that moves to breitbart. by any means, a majority of the elect terror rate, trump is going to have to figure out how to play this game. is he going to throw in with the neo-nazis, the white nationalists, is he going to try to mend fences? that will be interesting to see how this plays out. >> bannon is interviewed tonight. he says trump will push towards the establishment of the republican party. we will see if that's the direction this goes, jonathan cutler, howie swann, great insight tonight and coming up, steve bannon kicking off a week that couldn't have gone much worse for president trump. he is under siege from key re

of blackwater on breitbart news daily which is our sirius x.m. radio show six am to nine am eastern on sirius one twenty. five and he was talking about a plan to use five thousand private military contractors not a minute down yes but his plan was targeted very specifically at defeating the taliban working with local warlords to keep terrorists from having a safe haven that's the most basic minimal american mission there that's what most americans would agree with we want to prevent afghanistan from becoming another safe haven as it was before nine eleven then you have this other mission which i think the white house is now embarking on which is to shore up the government in kabul but no one is really clear as to where that ends or how far it goes the administration doesn't even seem quite clear as to whether it's trying to defeat the taliban or just deny them a victory so i think that was the substance of steve's criticism within the administration which is that we don't have a sense of what victory looks like and sending some middling number of

he's one of the biggest shareholders in breitbart.alking on wednesday, and he's back on friday, he was talking before he was fired. he may have seen the writing on the wall. and probably there will be another big increase in breitbart‘s funding and its power. nearly 600 people have been killed — and 16 million seriously affected— by floods in south asia. the monsoon storms have been sweeping across bangladesh, india and nepal. aid agencies say the region's facing it's worst humanitarian crisis for many years. andy moore reports. the aid agencies say these are the worst floods to hit south east asia in many years, a humanitarian crisis is feared. medicines and food are being taken by boat to the affected areas. the red cross said millions of people faced hunger and disease. the situation could get worse in the days and weeks ahead. in bangladesh more than a third of the country is under water. four million people are affected. at least 56 have died. this woman said she had never seen such a flood. her house had been washed away and now

the audience that breitbart voted for.hat gary cohen and ivanka trump and jared junior have hijacked donald trump and he's going to goo after every single one of them. he's going to be very aggressive by going after jeff flake, the republicans that are obstructing the president's agenda. >> i'm going to play some of their old interviews during the campaign when they were allies but on different sides of that table. >> let me ask you, the gop smart set that breitbart identified all these intellectuals. >> i don't think we should call them the smart set. they are wrong so often. i think we belittle ourselves by calling them the smart set. they call them the gop releelit. i think we're the elites because we're the ones that are right. >> will. >> steve bannon came into breitbart officially when andrew breitbart died. he has no role with the company before breitbart's death. immediately upon arriving he completely weaponized the place. he took it from what andrew breitbart envisioned as focused in criticizing the culture, kble

before that he was the chef chairman of breitbart. now, when it was announced that bannon was joining the administration, it was explained that he would be equal partners with the chief of staff, reince priebus. in the white house he helped shape the controversial travel ban, and we know he articulated policy goals within the administration thanks to that infamous picture of his whiteboard that made the rounds on twitter a few months ago. so let's get right to nbc's kelly o'donnell who is following the latest from bridge water, new jersey. >> reporter: well, ali as stinging as it may be for those who are supporters of steve bannon it was also predicted in many watz with false moments where his star had faded. but he always seemed to survive whatever the controversy was and that made today very different. it seems that bannon was very much aware in recent days that his time was coming likely to a close, in part because of the new chief of staff john kelly wanting a different kind of structure, one that bannon had not been operating in

at breitbart. already telling the weekly standard saying the presidency we fought for and won is over. how much of a concern is there inside the white house that this could be a problem for them in the white house? >> yeah, i talked to sources for weeks now. remember, this has come up before. steve bannon's head has been on the chopping block more than once, one thing you heard from people at the white house is that the concern was if steve bannon were to leave the west wing he would start firing pot shots back over at breitbart. now steve bannon is back at breitbart. but we're told by a source who talked to steve bannon earlier today that he has no plans to go to a hash tag war as a breitbart editor put it earlier today, against president trump. that he wants to go to war with president trump and push for the president's agenda outside the white house. of course, steve bannon really had his i would say -- i don't want to call them disagreements, certainly, with jarod kushner, the president's son-i

he is going back to breitbart.e is talking about launching a war against the people around the president. does that mean that his days of having a line of glungs donald trump, giving him advice, talking strategy with him, could that endure? >> oh, yeah. we've seen that with a lot of the people trump has ejected from trump world. corey lewandowski as an example. steve bannon and the president had a close personal relationship during the campaign i'm not sure it is as close now. in large part because the president has been irkd by the notion that bannon was the mastermind behind all of this. the president wants credit and that's why he was so pre disposed for letting him go this week. steve bannon may leave the white house but that story is being conflated with the other story that makes this, if not the worst week of the presidency, one of they will. that the president just bungled the response to charlottesville so badly. in doing so, he was embracing the nationalism that bannon represents. even as he is casting th

i don't mean to apologize for breitbart.e guys and i doubt i would like them if i did. it could be there was just a lot of bravado in that shop and it's still pretty shocking what they're saying. if i can offer a mild defense, it's not what they were saying in public. let's look what they say on the front page of the website, which is shocking enough for me. >> but they have been going after ivanka and jared, that's clear. although it's been about policy and things related to that, not about ugly smear. >> it confirms a lot of suspicions of people who see breitbart as something that they can utilize to get the conservative message out. it does confirm a lot of those suspicions. i think the question now is, how does this alter the profile of breitbart going forward? before this incident, and before we knew some of this was uncovered, it was seen as this platform for a lot of the anti-globalists or a lot of grassroots conservatives. the trump campaign used it very deftly. now does it render being changed, his profile being cha

if donald trump is reading breitbart and supporting breitbart and retweets things from breitbart, theninto what's shaping president trump's policies or rhetoric. that's impactful. >> kurt, david, i'm out of time. thank you for being here. >> thanks. >> after this, quick update on the storm. we are continuing to monitor flooding in houston and we will take you there live in just a moment. it's ok that everybody ignores me when i drive. it's fine. because i get a safe driving bonus check every six months i'm accident free. because i don't use my cellphone when i'm driving. even though my family does, and leaves me all alone. here's something else... i don't share it with mom. i don't. right, mom? i have a brand new putter you don't even know about! it's awesome. safe driving bonus checks, only from allstate. sometimes i leave the seat up on purpose. switching to allstate is worth it. its witnessed 2 diy duos,s 31 crashes,: 4 food fights, and the flood of '09. it's your paradise perfected with behr premium plus paint. the best you can buy starting under $25. only at the home depot. this t

if he caves on the -- to the political correctness in the view of the breitbart world, breitbart, like curt said, i think would go after him. the evangelicals would be more forgiving of that sort of change. >> wouldn't you think it would be opposite for the evangelicals? >> you would hope so but that hasn't been the case. >> bernard was the only evangelical who has spoken out against the president. he said i don't want to beat the president up, but he didn't see a moral compass there. it's interesting not really a word from evangelicals. >> they didn't abandon him when he made those "access hollywood" comments during the campaign. >> it is mind boggling how that has not happened when you think of the christian right and you think of what the bible teaches, it's the exact opposite of what the president said. >> hypocrites. >> they sehim as a strong leader who's going to carry out their political agenda. and they will say god picks imperfect men to fulfill his purposes and so they make these kinds of excuses for him. >> if only they had that understanding when obama was in office. >> rig

this is neofacist race baiting media breitbart news and the rest of it.o use the term alt right to describe it because that's what they call themselves. it is a neofacist movement. it is extremely dangerous. nobody who's been associated with the alt right or defends the alt right should be working for the united states government. if i were running a company, i would make sure that none of my employees were associated with the movement called the alt right. i don't want to employee neofacists. we have to find out who these people are and marginalize themselves. they're extremely dangerous. it is the alt right movement. and we need to confront it for what it is. and the republican party is in great jeopardy of being taken over by these people. and the more noise they make the more reasonable people are going to leave the party and then more crazy start voting in the primaries and that is going to get worse and worse. that is very dangerous for our country. we need to throw them out right away. >> thank you so much to connie shultz, richard painter and jame

. ♪ >> martha: breaking tonight, bannon is out and breitbart has declared war.ut on who and what remains to be unseen. that's what we intend to find out tonight. welcome to "the story." i am sandra smith in for martha maccallum. on the same day he left the white house, steve bannon was back at work inside the breitbart headquarters. reportedly already leading their evening editorial meeting. he just spoke to the weekly standard. he declared the trump presidency that we thought we fought for and won is over. we have a very powerful lineup tonight. raheem cassano spoke with bannon and said they now control -- we will also be joined by the former spokesperson for breitbart. he says bannon will want trump to feel the pain of his departure. and how this coming battle may reverberate across the media landscape. we look at all three of them and just moments. first, what might lay ahead? we go to our chief national correspondent ed henry. live, inside the white house. ed. >> people close to steve bannon, this is breaking tonight. pushing back hard on this notion that ba

right now, it is going to be breitbart. i would not be surprised to see him leverage the billions of dollars and turn breitbart into a television network, buy a company. i think he sees himself in world, historical terms. he is not going to want to do something small. whatever he does next, it's going to be a big thing. >> just stay with me for a second. because they have always had fox news, the republican party has fox news in their corner. there are other medias swirling around. trump thought trump might make one. what you are saying is bannon might go out and try to create his own media empire? >> without question, that has to be on the table. we know there's a lot of tension between bannon and murdock. we used to know from reports rupert murdock told trump to fire steve bannon. he sees bannon and fox news as the right wing. steve bannon sees them as part of the d.c. swamp and wants his voice to be the new media right. >> and the demographic is 40 years younger, which is something that makes breitbart valuable. donald t

if he caves on the -- to the political correctness in the view of the breitbart world, breitbart, likeid, i think would go after him. the evangelicals would be more forgiving of that sort of change. >> wouldn't you think it would be opposite for the evangelicals? >> you would hope so but that hasn't been the case. >> bernard was the only evangelical who has spoken out against the president. he said i don't want to beat the president up, but he didn't see a moral compass there. it's interesting not really a word from evangelicals. >> maybe they should have abandoned him when he made those access hollywood comments during the campaign. >> it is mind boggling how that has not happened when you think of the christian right and you think of what the bible teaches, it's the exact opstd posite of the president said. >> hypocrite. >> they see him as a strong leader who's going to carry out their political agenda and they will say god pick imperfect men to fulfill his purposes and so they make these kinds of excuses for him. >> -- obama was in office. >> right. well, one of the main evangelical

the fusion of the conservative party with this breitbart populism. and during the campaign, of course there were the dog whistles, the winks and the nods to these extremist elements that are now out fully in the sunlight. so what steve bannon represents is a real fundamental test and choice for the republican party. the republican party cannot remain in coalition and survive with neo-nazis, kkk, white supremacists, and their fellow travelers and apoll gists. there's no room for them in the party. so this week the moral failure of the president, the moral equivalency between neo-nazis who venerate adolf hitler, who venerate the most murderous and bult and despotic and evil regime in all of history, you can't transact with them for political purposes. and what steve bannon represents is a populist wing of a coalition that winks and nods and it's okay to be with those people. they're expedient for the moment. this presents a profound moral test for the republican party. so, ali, i interpret these comments this way. let's say they have 12 days to avoid a

does he two back to "breitbart"? can donald trump look through the "breitbart" lens and via other vehicles to perhaps find his way? because charlie making the point it will be really challenging without bannon by his side? >> it is. two questions, trish. who will replace steve bannon as white house strategist. because he is very unique, brilliant thinker, thinking two or three steps ahead. that is a huge question mark. is this person, whoever comes up, if he replaced will they have the same instincts and same brilliance as steve bannon. with him going back, i assume he goes back to "breitbart" and doing things previously. i guarranty what he will be doing. using that powerful platform to push that america first agenda, reminding people again, these ideas were winning ideas. they are positive agenda for america. let's not lose sight of that. again he will be competing with very powerful voices inside the west wing. you know what? bannon has resources and allies beyond "breitbart" pushing this message. >> going to be h

it's a double-edge sword because he wields power at breitbart with the alt-right.nt let the fox into the hen house. he let the alt-right into the oval office. bannon has maybe more power outside of the white house than he does inside. >> well, we'll see. i think he is certainly -- >> influence, i should say. >> we'll see. i think you may be right, but he certainly isn't going to be inhibited the way he was while he was in the white house by a chief of staff like john kelly, who's trying to crack down and keep people in line, by the fact that anything he says will be seen to be coming from a senior white house official and, therefore, carries more weight and forces him to be more careful about what he says, although bannon was never really careful about what he says. >> so who might the target of his -- >> okay, so i asked him this. i think dylan is exactly right. i said are you going to go after the white house democrats? that's bannon's pejorative term for jared kushner, gary cohn, steven mnuchin, and he wouldn't engage in the we direquestion d. he said there will

do we know, yet, if steve bannon is going back to breitbart?> reporter: he will continue to work with breitbart in some fashion, absolutely. and he's also working with bob mercer, the hedge fund billionaire who's behind -- a lot of the money behind this sort of not just breitbart but the sort of populist insurgency that helped carry trump into power. you know, brooke, i was going back, i was looking at a conversation i had with bannon back before the election in november, and i remember something that bannon told me. he said, regardless of what happens to trump on november 8, this movement is not going away. this is the first inning. bannon is somebody who really sees this as a movement where he's just playing a part and this is something that's going to play out over the course of american history, this sort of populist, nationalist movement for years and decades to come. i think bannon, you know, he's a philosopher, and it might be a dark and twisted philosophy, but he's a philosopher nevertheless. he saw trump as a vessel to sort of advance

the fusion of the conservative party with this breitbart populism. and during the campaign, of course there were the dog whistles, the winks and the nods to these extremist elements that are now out fully in the sunlight. so what steve bannon represents is a real fundamental test and choice for the republican party. the republican party cannot remain in coalition and survive with neo-nazis, kkk, white supremacists, and their fellow travelers and apologists. there's no room for them in the party. so this week the moral failure of the president, the moral equivalency between neo-nazis who venerate adolf hitler, who venerate the most murderous and brutal despotic and evil regime in all of history, you can't transact with them for political purposes. and what steve bannon represents is a populist wing of a coalition that winks and nods and it's okay to be with those people. they're expedient for the moment. this presents a profound moral test for the republican party. so, ali, i interpret these comments this way. let's say they have 12 days to avoid a go

steve bannon returned to breitbart last night virtually at least for the evening editorial call. what have you heard about that and what has been the reaction to his return? >> well, it's bittersweet, but the sweet part of it was great jubilation. we love steve. he is's kind of like a father figure to a lot of us. he's such a great manager, such a great inspiration. it was great to hear he was coming back. the bitter part of it for a lot of the trump base out there, and i suppose you would include a lot of people at breitbart amongst those people is we wanted to see that agenda move forward. steve made a comment to the weekly standard magazine yesterday saying the trump administration that you elected in november is over as we know it so far and for now. i think that's broadly accurate. i think it's fair to say the people now that surround the president are probably a little bit more to the center or indeed some of them to the center left. so for the people that elected donald trump to the white house, it's kind of a worrying moment. >> raheem, are you saying you think steve bann

and breitbart duked.he website is willing to go for him and his agenda against the white house. neighborhood ny chils do not graduate from high school. the kids after school, they are alone and they have nowhere to go and we tried to solve that problem by having this wonderful place where they can be children. wtef is the washington tennis and education foundation. we help the kids with their academics, and we teach them tennis. we have retired teachers doing the tutoring and they're here every day. wtef is the sole beneficiary of the citi open® tournament. since citi® has become the sponsor of this tournament, citi® has helped us raise more funds. that means we are able to serve more children. i'm so proud of the fact that 100% of the students in wtef graduate from high school. these kids are keeping the ball inside the lines. inside the lines. >>> breaking news, you are looking at live pictures out of phoenix, arizona. prodecember totedecemberer -- p waiting to greet trump after his much criticized resp

. >> with breitbart when i joined by eli would not make friends. i knew not to try to be too close because either they would not want that or maybe i wouldn't. i needed to focus. the interesting thing is how the journalist took an interest there was condescension, a feeder -- fear but that is the case that they played with and i would jump the fence. but this is what made the news story is talking to people at the rally. soviet had the idea and i am generalizing. it was fun. there was some very left-wing reporters. but it was fun. many did not like trump but many would agree and were quite open it was better to cover trump than hillary clinton and she did very few defense without much access to the candidate and not much change from day to day in the speeches were scripted and the crowds were the save it was thus set up of the of politics you are used to but trump was different you never knew what was going to happen, protesters, all over the place, five events a day and he was exhausting but it was exciting. talking bader journalist struggling to

. >>> steve banyan, jacked up, out of the white house and back at breitbart. in a new interview, he's promising a wide ranging fight. >>> plus, what this resignation means for president trump. is he now a lame duck president? what can he get done? we're going to have the answers, ahead. >>> happening now, an increased police presence in boston as right wing groups and counterprotesters hold rallies. this comes just one week after rallies in charlottesville turn deadly. morgan rad ford is in boston in the middle of it all. how big is this going to get? >> page, this is expected to be the largest rally since charlottesville. boston police are expecting between 20,000 and 30,000 people to decent right here on boston commons behind me. there are really two rallies today. the first is a so-called free speech rally and they have invited white nationalists to speak. but the organizer we spoke to said, look, this really isn't about white national i. this is about the ability to say and express your views regardless of whether or not those views might be offensive. but

that's what the mercer family had bannon using breitbart to do.re they took them away from breitbart and sent him over to the trump campaign and trump administration. now that he's done with the administration and back at breitbart as to have night, is he going back to that war he was waging on the republican party? or is there some new idea? what happens with the secretive billionaire mercer family as a factor now, now that they're back to paying steve bannon's salary instead of us taxpayers? joining us is jane mayor, staff writer for the new yorker. "the reclusive hedge-funneled tycoon behind the trump presidency" was an incredible piece of reporting that i'm sure put you on the mercer family christmas list forever. jane, thank you very much for being with us tonight. i really appreciate your time. >> glad to be with you. >> from what you understand about the mercer family and their intentions, why they funded trump to the degree that they did, why they facilitated the movement of steve bannon and kellyanne conway over to the campaign, why they

to breitbart.ow concerned is the administration have to be now about concern from conservative -- have to be now about conservative media? be veryhave to concerned. breitbart has made it clear to associates. he is here and that perhaps he is ready to go to war here. he may not direct that the donald trump. they had a very good relationship. it has frayed in recent weeks and months. there are people we know that he has been battling with inside the administration. gary cohn comest diminution, some of the folks just mentioned, h.r. mcmaster. i would be surprised of mr. bannon can hold his tongue on those folks for which he has very strong feelings in the neck or -- in the negative. sourcekevin tweeted a close to ben and told him democrats have seized control of the white house. kushnerary cohn, jared -- they are all democrats. do you think there will be any change or shift in policy or in the rhetoric we hear from the president himself? >> i think you have already seen in policy, as the president has

how could breitbart -- what kind of damage could breitbart and bannon do to the president's agenda if not happy with it? >> well, i don't think they want to do damage to the president's agenda. i view it as being just the opposite. the president was very clear on the policies he wanted to govern on during the campaign and those why consistent with the policies largely that bannon and breitbart were advocating prior to bannon being involved with the president's campaign last summer. i think we're going to see more of the same. bannon wants to be a friend and ally to the president just as he's been the last couple of years. now having said that, there's also going to be an element where i think breitbart will be an effective counter weight to some voices that oppose those things. sort of an accountability partner, if you will. these are the things, these are the policies that you advocated on the campaign trail. the things people voted for. are you going to do those or has something changed? if something has changed, you need to make the case for that. is there new information? is there

one of the cronies at breitbart for bannonweeting th wd "war."telling the weekly standard the presidency that he and donald trump fought for and won is now over. think of that. all right, a lot to cover. and to talk about so let's bring in cnn's jim acosta joining us first with the very latest for the president's vacation spot in new jersey. jim, what are we finding out about the timing here, how this went down with bannon? >> well, chris it was alt-right, stage left you might say for steve bannon. from what we understand from talking to our source, this has been building for some time. according to sources i talked to earlier today, steve bannon was supposed to be fired a coupe of weeks ago, and that did not happen. he was given a chance to resign, which apparently he took the opportunity to do. but make no mistake, he was forced out. he was fired "the apprentice" style by the president by the president and chief of staff john kelly. a couple of reasons why this was. this has been building for some time. this is not the first time that steve ban

breitbart went after hr mcmaster, went after ivanka trump. continues to go after gary cohn, jared kushner, they're all still in the white house and steve bannon was the one shown the door. how effective will breitbart be? how much of a voice is this website? >> it's a good question. before trump went into the white house, breitbart was quite effective at influencing republican politics at a congressional level. i think they were chiefly responsible, they and their group of allies in congress, for ousting former house speaker john boehner in 2015. now bannon is a larger figure in our politics and our culture, especially among grassroots conservatives now that he's been in the white house and helped trump beat hillary clinton. so i think returning to breitbart is going to give him a new-found stature. i don't know if it will be enough to influence policy debates like the ongoing issue of troop levels in afghanistan, which was one of the major fights that bannon had with mcmaster inside the white house. i think now that bannon is on the outside

that's what the mercer family had bannon using breitbart to do before they took him away from breitbartt him to the trump campaign and trump administration. now that he's done with the administration and back at breitbart as of tonight, is he going back to that war waging on the republican party? or is there some new idea? what happens with the secretive billionaire mercer family as a factor now, now that they're back to paying steve bannon's salary instead of us taxpayers? joining us is jane mayer. staff wire for the new yo"new y. there was an incredible piece of reporting that i'm sure put you on the mercer christmas list forever. thank you for being with us. >> glad to be with you. >> from what you understand about the mercer family and their intentions, why they funded trump to the degree that they did, why they facilitated the movement and why they supported breitbart all of these years, given your understanding of all of those things, do you have a sense of what their role will be now that bannon's out? >> well, first of all, what their intentions were in the campaign was -- bob m

he's now returned to a senior role at the right—wing website, breitbart news.a string of departures from the white house in a turbulent few weeks. david willis has more. steve bannon, widely credited for helping steer donald trump to victory, he was one of the most powerful men in the white house. the driving force behind donald trump's nationalist ideology, his was the ethos of putting america first, and taking back the country. as economic conditions get better, as morejobs get better, they will continue to fight. if you think they will give your country back without a fight, you are sadly mistaken. every day — every day, it is going to be a fight. he is not a racist, i can tell you that. he is a good person. he actually gets a very unfair press in that regard. but we'll will see what happens with mr bannon. by the time that donald trump had made that less than ringing endorsement of his special advisor this week, the die was cast. steve bannon's clashes with more moderate forces in the west wing, chief among them the president's son—in—law, jared kushner, an

bannon, the former head of breitbart news, championed mr. trump's populous campaign message to help him get elected last year. but his world view and all those clashes with other trump administration officials, including son-in-law jared kushner, it left him with few allies inside the west wing. the white house today released this statement. white house chief of staff john kelly and steve bannon have mutually agreed today would be steve's last day. we are grateful for his service and we wish him the best. michael, coming to you. general kelly made this decision , the 45-year marine. you have to ask, is he cleaning house? geoff: he is, but i don't think kelly is the reason bannon's leaving. i think this has been coming for months now. shoot which has been building from early in the administration, when bannon, remember when president trump gets there, has enormous power. was basically writing the talking points, pushing through the executive orders. had put similar self on the national security down -- put himself on the national security cou

tweeted steve bannon returned to breitbart news as executive chairman of breitbart news and chairedvening editorial meeting. we will talk about all of this with the host of tucker carlson tonight. tucker carlson joins me after the break about the breaking news of steve bannon out at chief strategist in the trump white house. ♪ ♪ with an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve short-term memory. prevagen. the name to remember. and it's also a story mail aabout people and while we make more e-commerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country, we never forget... that your business is our business the united states postal service. priority: you [ gasps, laughs ] you ever feel like... cliché foil characters scheming against a top insurer for no reason? nah. so, why don't we like flo? she has the name your price tool, and we want it. but why? why don't we actually do any work? why do you only own one suit? it's just the way it is, underdeveloped office character. you're right. thanks, bill. no, you're bill. i'm to

that breitbart is expected to double down on and it is expected to get uglier. so that is sort of why trump is quiet and why this breitbart tweet today is so confusing, given everything that he knows or suspected about the leaking to breitbart. >> and do you think that -- is that one of the main causes here. he had his been steve bannon had a mooch moment basically with the the interview that he didn't think he was giving on the record that was pretty damning in many respects. a call that he made himself to a reporter based on that reporter's reporting about china and china policy. do you think that bannon has been a problem all along about being a leaker. >> well first of all, let's give credit where credit is due. steve bannon was very helpful with the economic national message that reached out to disaffect disaffected middle class voters in wisconsin and ohio and and so he did help president trump become president trump an clear tri -- clearly there were some problems. he's been fighting over foreign policy. agree with steve bannon. i think we need a more res

it is not going to be a breitbart thing.ere already who are freightustrated the slow pace and what they believe of a distraction. they think it is all of a distraction. that he want policy changes. ta that white board is sitting in the back. >> is there a breitbart, what's on? >> we have the best breitbart. >> what are the things that steve bannon told and he feels that moderate republicans and as he calls them, that could include a bunch of people that a lot of folks don't consider moderate are starting to split from the president right now. we have to be clear about this. the leadership in the white house is not helping the president to deliver what he promised to deliver. it is not just for the sake of it, aiming our frustration at them but proving it. in this country, you have a weird situation going on now and people are trying to redefine these things. you guys enjoy the segment, on your website, you called it far right. everybody knows what's far right. we have to get back to some sort of same discourse like you and i

here's the headline on breitbart tonight. "trump reverses course.l send more troops to afghanistan. defends flip-flop in somber speech." >> we are prepared to help paul ryan rally votes for impeachment. that was not said by nancy pelosi or any other democrat. that was said by a high-level unnamed staffer at breitbart, the right-wing hate spewing website ran by steve bannon before he joined the trump campaign and now once again officially run by steve bannon now that he's been fired by the white house by president trump. everyone in the white house, of course, assumed bannon was running breitbart while he was working in the white house so it's not that big of a change. but white houthe part that we'rd to rally votes to impeach president trump, that is new. steve bannon also fought with jared kushner over the direction of the trump presidency and one bannon ally told "vanity fair," "he said jared is a dope." if he continues to find himself on losing arguments, will he really lead the impeachment from the right wing of the republican party? joining me

breitbart news is engaged in extensive race baiting over the last few years. and it was a self—proclaimed platform for the alt—right so if he goes back to breitbart news and encourages more of this alt—right business we may see more unrest in our cities, as we did in charlottesville, and then there might very well be attempts to influence the white house, and that would be most unfortunate. there are some ethics rules in place that prohibit steve bannon for lobbying back to the white house on behalf of breitbart news and i hope they are taken seriously and unforced. you speak understandably dismissively of what bannon and the president achieved but they are only there because they got a lot of votes so they clearly appealed to a lot of americans, white? they did get a lot of votes, they didn't get as many as there are quite unpopular rival hillary clinton. they were very unsatisfied with both alternatives. we are in a situation where americans have given donald trump a chance. it's been eight months and his approval rating is way down on where he started in th