Steve Bannon Makes A Comeback In ‘60 Minutes’: What You Should Know

More than a fortnight after being removed from the White House as chief strategist, Steve Bannon made a comeback Sunday in CBS News’ “60 Minutes” speaking forth on a host of issues that have dominated the tenure of President Donald Trump.

Bannon, who is back at running the far-right news website Breitbart, made several stinging remarks during the interview with Charlie Rose as he talked about how the president made the "biggest mistake in modern political history" by firing former FBI director James Comey. However, he was particularly scathing of the GOP leadership and also tried to defend Trump administration on several instances.

He said the Republican administration was trying to nullify the 2016 elections. Referring to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan, Bannon said the GOP leaders were trying to prevent "Trump’s populist, nationalist, economic agenda from being implemented." “It’s as obvious as night follows the day.”

While introducing his guest for the night, Rose underlined this was Bannon’s first TV interview since leaving the White House.

Bannon went on to talk about the “swamp” in Washington, hinting at the lobbyists reaching out to politician, and said the “swamp” could not be cleared in eight months.

“The permanent political class, as represented by both parties. You're not gonna — you're not gonna drain that in eight months. You're not gonna drain it in two terms. This is gonna take 10, 15, 20 years of relentlessly going after it,” Bannon told Rose.

When questioned about the administration’s failures, he said, “When you say failures, it's eight months in, gimme a failure. Obama didn't have Obamacare for the first 18 months. You're holding him to an unfair standard."

Here are some other interesting remarks he made during the interview:

“I am a street fighter”: The ousted White House chief strategist said his media image of being a “street fighter” was pretty accurate. “And by the way, I think that's why Donald Trump and I get along so well. Donald Trump's a fighter,” he stressed.

“America’s built on citizens”: Justifying Trump’s repeal of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), Bannon insisted the president should not have allowed another six months to the Congress to resolve the issue. He said he feared a “civil war” in the GOP over the issue and this would create problems for the party ahead of the 2018 mid-term election.

Asserting that economic nationalism is what the country was built on, he said, “We have to focus on American citizens. America's built on our citizens. Look at the 19th century. What built America's called the American system, from Hamilton to Polk to Henry Clay to Lincoln to the Roosevelts. A system of protection of our manufacturing, financial system that lends to manufacturers, OK, and the control of our borders."

Sanctions on China can solve the North Korea crisis: POTUS has often hinted that China could help U.S. in dealing the threats from North Korea. During his interview on Sunday, his former aide stressed Trump had been referring to Beijing as the single biggest problem for the U.S. on the world stage for 30 years.

Bannon said Washington should force Beijing to act against North Korea by imposing tougher sanctions even if it hurts the U.S. economy. "My suggestion and my recommendation is to solve the problem in Korea, you need to solve that problem with China," he said. "It's a client state of China."

Trump will win in a landslide in 2020: While he attacked the GOP during the interaction, he also predicted the Republican Party would win six to seven seats in the 2018 mid-term elections. He also said Trump would claim a landslide victory in the 2020 presidential election.

“Hillary Clinton’s not very bright”: Bannon lashed out at Trump’s rival in the presidential election and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, saying she does not have a grasp on the issues that are most important today — nationalism and populism. “Hillary Clinton's not very bright," he said. "Everybody says she's so smart, so much smarter than Donald Trump. She doesn't really have a grasp. She doesn't have a grasp on what's important and what's not."

Meanwhile, Twitterati swung into action soon after the interview was aired. While some social media users criticized him for his remarks, others praised him.

A Twitter user commented on how he spilled the beans during the sixty minutes.

Some media users commented on Bannon’s jibe at the media. "I don't care what they say. They can call me an anti-Semite. They can call me racist. They call me nativist,” Bannon said during the interview. “As long as we're driving this agenda for the working men and women of this country, I'm happy.”

Former White House Communications Director Jen Psaki called him out for lashing at the mainstream while giving his interview on a mainstream channel.