Steve Bannon says he doesn’t care about ‘Saturday Night Live’s’ portrayal of him as the Grim Reaper because he doesn’t need ‘affirmation’ in the media.
Bannon pushed back against the caricature in his ’60 Minutes’ interview Sunday on CBS, while also brushing off portrayals as him as the manipulator behind some of President Donald Trump’s nativist ‘America First’ policies.
‘I don’t need the affirmation of the mainstream media. I don’t care what they say,’ Bannon said when asked by host Charlie Rose about the sketches.
‘I don’t need the affirmation of the mainstream media,’ said Bannon, who was portrayed as the Grim Reaper on SNL last season
‘They can call me an anti-Semite. They can call me racist. They call me nativist. You can call me anything you want. OK? As long as we’re driving this agenda for the working men and women of this country, I’m happy,’ Bannon added.
In one particularly harsh sketch, Bannon hovers in the background while Trump, played by Alec Baldwin, is portrayed making oafish statements to the Prime Minister of Australia and the President of Mexico, in a play on leaked Transcripts of Trump’s conversations with the two leaders.
The Washington Post reported that Trump was ‘especially upset’ over the portrayal.
In one memorable shot, the Grim Reaper is seated at the resolute desk, while Trump is seated next to him at a tiny desk playing with a children’s toy.
In another comment in the blockbuster interview with the mainstream media organization, Bannon said DREAMers should ‘self deport’ once their DACA work permits run out.
Bannon may have come off better than his boss, President Trump, who is played as a buffoon
WHAT’S A LITTLE FLAK? Jimmy Fallon as Jared Kushner, Grim Reaper as Steve Bannon, and Alec Baldwin as President Donald Trump during the “Trump Cold Open” sketch on April 15, 2017
‘As the work permits run out they self deport,’ Bannon told host Charlie Rose in an interview for 60 Minutes that airs Sunday night. ‘I think what we have to do is focus on the American citizens,’ the ex-Trump aide urged.
Rose pointed out that America was built by immigrants.
‘You couldn’t be more dead wrong,’ Bannon replied. ‘America was built on her citizens.’
‘Don’t give me, this is the thing of the leftists, Charlie, that’s beneath you. America’s built on our citizens. Look at the 19th century. What built America’s called the American system from Hamilton to Polk to Henry Clay to Lincoln to the Roosevelts,’ Bannon said.
Steve Bannon said that he believed Dreamers should ‘self deport’ after their DACA work permits run out, worrying that the issue will split the Republican Party during the primaries
Former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon sat down for an extended interview with 60 Minutes, which aired in full Sunday night
He argued that ‘economic nationalism’ was what the country was founded on.
‘We look after our citizens, we look after our manufacturing base and guess what?This country’s going to be greater, more united more powerful than it’s ever been,’ Bannon said. ‘This is not astrophysics, OK?’
‘And, by the way, that’s every nationality, every race, every religion, every sexual preference, as long as you’re a citizen of our country,’ he said. ‘As long as you’re an American citizen you’re part of this populous economic nationalist movement.’