White House sees ‘no way back’ for Bannon after attack on Trump’s children
Spokesperson says Ivanka and Don Jr. ‘sacrificing’ their lives in service to the nation, calls former adviser’s comments in controversial book ‘repugnant’
A White House spokesman said Monday there’s no “way back” for Steve Bannon after his comments in an explosive new book that questioned US President Donald Trump’s fitness for office.
Deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said he doesn’t “believe there’s any way back for Mr. Bannon at this point.” He added that Trump’s criticism of Michael Wolff’s book “Fire and Fury” still stands, saying, “It was obvious that the book was false and fake.”
Gidley spoke to reporters aboard Air Force One as Trump traveled to Nashville, Tennessee.
In the book, Bannon is quoted accusing Trump’s eldest son Don Jr. of “treasonous” contacts with a Kremlin-linked lawyer, and saying the president’s daughter Ivanka is “dumb as a brick.”
“When you go after somebody’s family in the matter which he did, two of the president’s children are serving this nation, sacrificing in their service, it is repugnant, it is grotesque and I challenge anybody to go and talk about somebody’s family and see if that person doesn’t come back and comes back hard,” Gidley said.
Asked to clarify what the president’s children have sacrificed, Gidley responded that “they both gave up personal and private lives to come work at the White House and work for the American people. They do that every day, and it’s ridiculous for anyone to try and attack what they do for this nation.”
Bannon — Trump’s former chief strategist — has tried to make amends for comments that appeared in the book. He issued a statement praising the president’s eldest son Sunday, and said he regrets not having released it sooner.
The book also quotes key Trump aides raising questions about his fitness for office. Gidley told reporters that the president’s scheduled medical exam this week wouldn’t include a psychiatric evaluation.
Responding to queries on the subject, Gidley said simply: “No.”
“He’s sharp as a tack,” he told reporters.
Trump, 71, will be examined at the Walter Reed military hospital in a Washington suburb Friday and the results are set to be made public.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump published a letter by his long-term doctor Harold Bornstein that stated he was in “excellent physical health.”
Bornstein had previously written about Trump’s health in glowing terms, stating in 2015 he would be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.”
Angered by the publication of the bombshell book, which raised doubts over his mental faculties, Trump took to Twitter this weekend to describe himself as “a very stable genius” and “like, really smart.”
