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“Fire and Fury” Author Pushes Back Against Bannon’s Claim That His “Treasonous” Comment Was About Paul Manafort

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Michael Wolff, author of the book Fire and Fury covering the behind-the-scenes drama within the White House during the first year of the Trump administration, doubled down on his claim that Steve Bannon described Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russian lawyer as “treasonous” and “unpatriotic.”

Bannon, former White House deputy chief of staff, backtracked on Sunday in a statement to Axios. In addition to insisting he still supports Trump and his agenda, he said the “treasonous” comment was aimed at former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, who is currently under investigation for his communication with Russians during the campaign and was indicted in October.

“My comments about the meeting with Russian nationals came from my life experiences as a Naval officer stationed aboard a destroyer whose main mission was to hunt Soviet submarines to my time at the Pentagon during the Reagan years when our focus was the defeat of ‘the evil empire’ and to making films about Reagan’s war against the Soviets and Hillary Clinton’s involvement in selling uranium to them,” he said.

He added, “My comments were aimed at Paul Manafort, a seasoned campaign professional with experience and knowledge of how the Russians operate. He should have known they are duplicitous, cunning and not our friends. To reiterate, those comments were not aimed at Don Jr.

But in an appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Wolff contradicted Bannon’s statement.

“I like Steve, I’m grateful for the time he gave me, the insights he gave me and I don’t want to put him in more hot water than he is already in, but it was not directed at Manafort, it was directed directly at Don Jr.,” he said.

Bannon’s backtracking came after he was abandoned by several of his most important allies following the uproar caused by the “treasonous” quote, including the billionaire Mercer family, which has been one of his most crucial financial backers over the years. There have even been reports that the board of directors of the alt-right news site Breitbart, one of Bannon’s most effective tools at reaching conservatives, was considering getting rid of him.

Enter here to win a free digital copy of Fire and Fury.

Wolff claims to have recorded “hours and hours” of his conversations with the interview subjects for his book, including Bannon, so hopefully he’ll be able to prove who the former Trump staffer was referring to.