Former White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon implored conservative voters to join his vowed “war against the [Republican] establishment” and Senate leadership, threatening that massive campaign war chests will not protect GOP incumbents from angry conservative voters.
“It’s not my war; this is our war,” Bannon declared, pacing across the stage during the Values Voter Summit in Washington on Saturday. “And y’all didn’t start it, the establishment started it.”
In a speech at the annual gathering of social conservative activists, the now-informal adviser to President Trump mocked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), alluding to Shakespeare to suggest that he is eagerly awaiting the day McConnell’s leadership is publicly undermined by a fellow Republican.
“Up on Capitol Hill, it’s the Ides of March,” Bannon declared, referring to the group of senators who, in Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar,” assassinated the Roman leader by stabbing him in the back. Continuing with the analogy, Bannon added, addressing McConnell: “They’re just looking to find out who is going to be Brutus to your Julius Caesar.”
