Steve Bannon says he is happy Donald Trump lost the 2020 election—at least, in hindsight.
The self-described hardcore nationalist, who was a White House adviser in Trump’s first term, claimed Wednesday “divine providence” caused the 2020 election to be “stolen” so Trump could then usher in a MAGA “awakening” four years later.
“We realize now, in the fullness of time, that it was God’s plan,” he told his War Room listeners. “It was divine providence that, that [the election] would be stolen. Why? Because it helped the in the awakening of this country.”
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There is no evidence to support the long-discredited MAGA claim there was mass voter fraud in Joe Biden’s electoral victory. That has not stopped Bannon from rehashing the lie over and over, however.
Bannon made sure to give himself a pat on the back, too, for his perceived role in Trump’s comeback.
He said his podcast, which continued even through his own four-month stint behind bars last summer, was a “rally point” for Trump when other conservative outlets, like the Wall Street Journal and Fox News, had supposedly turned on the party’s leader.
Bannon, 71, also commended his listeners, who have stuck by him even as he has become MAGA’s most vocal critic of Elon Musk, for getting “reorganized” after a crushing defeat and coming back with vengeance in 2024.
“People are sometimes—they just drop their weapons and just run,” he said, comparing the 2020 election to a military defeat. “They drop their weapons—you got to stick the guide on in somewhere. You got to get a bunch of guys around the guide, get the guns up, and get the bugle up and say, ‘No, we’re going to hold right here. Everybody come around, we’ll get reorganized.’”
