CNN Calls Bannon’s Courthouse Remarks ‘Bluster’: ‘Let the Political Martyrdom Begin’

CNN’s Newsroom reacted to remarks made by former top Trump adviser Steve Bannon outside a federal courthouse after being arraigned on Monday on criminal contempt charges.

Bannon was indicted for defying a subpoena by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. He turned himself in to the FBI on Monday.

Bannon railed against the charges from the Department of Justice and threatened to go “on offense” against President Joe Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Bannon called the charge the “misdemeanor from hell.”

“You heard the remarks from Steve Bannon after this first appearance. Also from his attorney David shown. Steve Bannon calling this he said it is the misdemeanor from hell,” said CNN co-host Victor Blackwell following remarks from Bannon and his attorney, David Schoen. “Referencing attorney general Merrick Garland, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Biden, even squeezed in a Hillary Clinton reference there as well, so clearly the man versus the administration narrative is the one that he wants to follow.”

Blackwell then introduced the panel: senior justice correspondent Evan Perez, senior legal analyst Elie Honig and congressional correspondent Ryan Nobles.

Perez called the press conference a “namecheck of the greatest hits if you are Steve Bannon and you have a podcast and you need to fundraise, right?” He mentioned that Bannon “answered respectfully to the judge when the judge advised him of his rights.” The judge scheduled arraignment for Thursday. Bannon was released under certain conditions such as not being allowed to travel abroad.

Honig called Bannon and his lawyer’s remarks “a show.”

“Let the political martyrdom begin,” he said.

Honig continued:

The problem with what he just did and the reasons why smart lawyers will tell you don’t say anything is he sort of contradicted himself. Because he said two things. He said the reason I defied the subpoena is because it’s a political witch hunt, Pelosi and the other names that he dropped and I’m not going to happen.

Also I have this executive privilege issue so which one is it? What’s your reason? What’s your defense? They don’t go well together. His lawyer was mischaracterizing these DOJ memos. To an extent. There is a DOJ memo which says it’s possible that executive privilege could apply beyond the executive branch in attorney in certain narrow circumstances that I don’t think are relevant here.

Also, this is the big question for Bannon, how is he going to claim executive privilege on conversations with other people not in the executive branch, with Rudy Giuliani, with this lawyer John Eastman. He’s going to have a major problem and this gets back to one of the big problems with Steve Bannon, strategically. He has put up a blanket stop sign. If he said agree to this and I fight that, it would have been a much harder to case to prosecute.

Watch above, via CNN.