Bannon, undeterred, under siege from GOP after Alabama loss

NEW YORK — Former White House strategist Steve Bannon is catching blame from fellow Republicans for coughing up a safe Senate seat in deep-red Alabama and foisting damaging political advice on US President Donald Trump. But in the aftermath of this week’s stinging Alabama defeat, Bannon is showing no signs of abandoning his guerrilla war against the GOP establishment.

Bannon wholeheartedly backed Roy Moore, the insurgent conservative who faltered in Tuesday’s special election amid allegations that he had preyed on underage girls decades ago. The accusations prompted the national party to withdraw support for its nominee for a while, but Bannon stuck with Moore, headlining rallies for the candidate and convincing Trump to extend a full-throated endorsement.

But when Moore lost on Tuesday, handing the Democrats control of their first Senate seat in Alabama in a generation, Republicans turned on Bannon. The Breitbart News head already had made scores of enemies for declaring a siege on his own party.

“This is a brutal reminder that candidate quality matters regardless of where you are running,” said Steven Law, head of the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC for Republicans aligned with GOP leadership. “Not only did Steve Bannon cost us a critical Senate seat in one of the most Republican states in the country, but he also dragged the president of the United States into his fiasco.”

Bannon’s team vowed that its revolution would continue, insisting that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should be the one to take the blame.

— AP