Morning Joe has been on a Steve Bannon-bashing spree the last couple of days, with various panel members predicting his departure from the White House. As Mika Brzezinski put it yesterday, “the end is nigh” for Bannon.
But Mark Halperin made a strong case for Bannon on today’s show, saying that being conventional is not what got Donald Trump elected, and that “Bannon is one of the few people in the White House and in Trump’s life who is creative, who’s innovative, who takes risks, who advocates taking risks. Someone has to be for that.”
This Insurrectionist has found that for some time now, rather than running with the pack mentality, Halperin has demonstrated an ability to maintain an independent perspective on events. Watch for him. He’s not aggressive or flashy, but will often offer a counterpoint to the conventional wisdom of the day.
Halperin’s comments came after Joe Scarborough depicted Ivanka, Jared Kushner, Gary Cohn and Dina Powell as being in the ascendancy within the White House, at the expense of Bannon.
MARK HALPERIN: The establishment and the press in Washington would like a conventional administration. They like when he does things with NATO. They like when he works with Congress in a more traditional way. That is not the essence of what got Trump elected, and so, they need to put together a team, whether it’s with the current people or with some new people, that does those two things simultaneously. Harness what makes Donald Trump a potent political force but also deal with the realities of working with Congress, getting things through the courts. And Bannon is one of the few people in the White House and in Trump’s life who is creative, who’s innovative, who takes risks, who advocates taking risks. Someone has to be for that. And that other group within the White House is a more traditional, more conventional group of thinkers.”
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