Steve Bannon said in a ’60 Minutes’ interview on Wednesday that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie lost his chance to become part of Donald Trump’s cabinet by failing to support the future president after embarrassing audio from a 2005 Access Hollywood taping was leaked.
The infamous audio, in which Trump is heard bragging that famous men can get away with groping women marked the low point in Trump’s campaign.
In the horrifying hot-mic audio, he can be heard telling ‘Access Hollywood’ host Billy Bush: ‘You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful [women] — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait.’
‘And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the p***y – you can do anything.’
Bannon said that ‘Christie, because of “Billy Bush weekend” … was not looked at for a cabinet position.’
Steve Bannon claims Chris Christie was passed over for a cabinet slot because he wouldn’t defend Trump in the aftermath of the ‘Access Hollywood’ audio leak of shocking ‘grab em by the p***y’ audio in October 2016
Christie’s longtime chief political advisor says it’s not true, and Christie was offered several cabinet slots – but the governor went back to New Jersey without an administration job
‘I told him, “The plane leaves at 11 o’clock in the morning. If you’re on the plane, you’re on the team.” [He] didn’t make the plane.’
Trump ultimately offered a mea culpa as part of a strategy to save his White House hopes.
‘Anyone who knows me knows these words don’t reflect who I am,’ he said in a brief videotaped statement. ‘I said it, I was wrong, and I apologize.’
Candidate Trump had already dismissed the tape, first published by the Washington Post following a leak by a TV producer, as ‘locker room talk’ during a presidential debate against Hillary Clinton that came the day after its release.
Christie’s senior political campaign strategist disputed Bannon’s account on Friday, telling the Independent Journal Review that ‘I am not certain what criteria the president used to decide on cabinet members, but the assertion is simply not true.’
‘Governor Christie was offered more than a half-dozen different cabinet positions, ambassadorships and senior White House positions,’ Mike DuHaime said.
‘He turned them all down because he wanted to serve out his term as Governor.’
In the infamous 2005 audio, Trump is heard telling ‘Access Hollywood’ host Billy Bush that women let famous men touch them inappropriately: ‘When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the p***y – you can do anything’
Bannon also told ’60 Minutes’ that Reince Priebus suggested Trump should quit the presidential race as the scandal known as ‘p***ygate’ unfolded.
Audio outtakes from behind the scenes of the 2005 ‘Access Hollywood’ broadcast made Trump’s last month on the campaign trail a constant battle with feminist critics
The then-chairman of the Republican National Committee and future White House chief of staff gave Candidate Trump his politically shortsighted advice in an all-hands-on-deck campaign meeting, according to Bannon.
The former chief White House strategist said Trump ‘went around the room and asked people the percentages he thought of – of still winning, and what the recommendation [was].’
‘And Reince started off and Reince said, “You have – you have two choices. You either drop out right now, or you lose by the biggest landslide in American political history”.’
Trump never forgot that comment, and never forgave it. White House staff called it Priebus’s ‘Scarlet A.H.’ moment, using the initials for ‘Access Hollywood.’
Bannon insisted that voters ‘didn’t care’ about the vulgar audio.
‘They knew Donald Trump was just doing locker room talk with a guy. And they dismissed it. It had no lasting impact on the campaign,’ he said.
Former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus told Trump weeks before the 2016 presidential election that he had no chance of winning, Bannon claims
Trump never forgot that comment, and never forgave it. White House staff called it Priebus’s ‘Scarlet A.H.’ moment, using the initials for ‘Access Hollywood.’
In the days after the president fired Priebus, story after story emerged from the West Wing recounting how Trump held it over his head, reminding the ‘weak, weak, weak’ manager that he had lost faith when the chips were down.
Bannon, another White House castoff, claimed in his ’60 Minutes’ sitdown with co-host Charlie Rose that his own view at the time of the campaign’s Access Hollywood crisis was far rosier.
‘I was the last guy to speak,’ he recalled of the meeting where Priebus told Trump he was sunk.
‘And I said, “It’s 100 percent. You have 100 percent probability of winning”.’