Bannon declares ‘season of war’ on GOP establishment

Former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon on Saturday declared a “season of war” against Republican lawmakers, promising to help elect replacements for any Senate Republican who opposes President Trump.

“Right now it’s a season of war against the GOP establishment,” Bannon said at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, an annual conference of evangelical conservatives where Trump himself spoke on Friday. 

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Bannon slammed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, saying he’s been getting calls to find “the Brutus” to his “Julius Caesar,” comparing the Kentucky lawmaker to the Roman emperor who was stabbed in the back by his trusted friend.

“Yeah, Mitch, the donors are not happy. They’ve all left ya. We’ve cut your oxygen off, Mitch, OK?” Bannon said Saturday.

McConnell has taken much of the blame for the Senate GOP’s failure to advance ObamaCare repeal legislation this year, with five conservative activist leaders calling this week for McConnell and his leadership team to resign over the Senate’s failure to pass much of Trump’s agenda. 

Bannon told Fox News’s Sean Hannity earlier this week that he was declaring “war” on the GOP establishment, saying he would support candidates looking to unseat Republicans who oppose Trump’s agenda.

The Breitbart News executive declared an early victory last month after backing former judge Roy Moore in the Alabama Senate GOP runoff. Moore defeated Sen. Luther Strange, who was backed by Trump and congressional Republicans. 

Moore’s insurgent victory has Breitbart and Bannon expanding their target list for 2018, with the group now turning their attention to election fights in nearly a dozen other states, including Nevada, Arizona, Tennessee, Mississippi, Utah, West Virginia, Nebraska, Montana and Wisconsin.