Former White House advisor Steve Bannon pushed back forcefully Thursday against claims that President Donald Trump’s immigration plans amount to “mass incarceration.”
In a Thursday episode of MSNBC’s “Katy Tur Reports,” Emma Vigeland claimed Trump had abandoned his “drain the swamp” rhetoric, embraced Washington elites, and used criminal justice reform as a tool to reward allies while overseeing a mass incarceration agenda. Bannon responded on his show, saying that the Trump administration’s First Step Act was a landmark reform rooted in compassion and fairness and that there is a clear difference between incarceration and deportation.
“And this is why they’re losing. She’s a bald-faced liar. Nobody has done more on prison reform and work with prisoners and is more anti-mass incarceration,” Bannon said.
Bannon reminded viewers of a statement he issued while in prison.
“On August, on Sept. 26, and Grace, we should put this up because you were involved in this in prison. I put the only statement I think I ever put out in prison about the coming victory over Kamala Harris. You know where I got that from? The prisoners, because Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party and that young lady right there, they represent mass incarcerations,” Bannon added.
Bannon then emphasized that the First Step Act, a signature bipartisan achievement under Trump, marked a historic break from the era of mass imprisonment, particularly for minority communities.
“What he’s doing with illegal aliens is not mass incarceration. That’s deportation of people that have no due process rights and are going to get the hell out of this country. President Trump, the First Step Act, ask the prisoners, ma’am. Have you interviewed the prisoners? His First Step Act is the boldest move ever against mass incarceration. Remember, the Democratic Party, and particularly the progressive part of the Democratic Party, have been for mass incarceration,” Bannon said.
Clarifying Trump’s deportation agenda, Bannon discussed the distinction between criminal justice reform and immigration enforcement.
“What President Trump [wants] is mass deportation of illegal aliens, and they’re going to get mass deported. It’s for you to sit there and, Katie Tur, now for you to correct that bald-faced lie, and that was a bald-faced lie, and Katie Tur, you know better,” Bannon added.
Bannon went on to call MSNBC “corrupt” and “increasingly irrelevant,” blaming its misinformation campaigns for the network’s declining influence.
“This is how corrupt MSNBC is. This is why they’re, no offense, becoming more and more irrelevant. This is why African American men are voting for President Trump and the MAGA movement in record numbers,” Bannon said. “This is why the Hispanic community is coming to President Trump in the MAGA movement in record numbers.”
Before winning in an electoral landslide against former Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump campaigned on an aggressive immigration platform that included building the border wall, ending birthright citizenship, and launching the largest deportation effort in U.S. history. Trump said he will declare a national emergency and deploy military resources to enforce mass deportations.
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