GOP on track to lose house: Bannon

The former chief strategist to Donald Trump believes the Republicans would lose the house if an election were held today.

Steve Bannon in Washington yesterday. Picture: AP

The former chief strategist to Donald Trump believes the Republicans would lose 35 to 40 seats in the House of Representatives if an election were held today, ceding their majority to Democrats who Steve Bannon is convinced will pursue the ­impeachment of the President.

Mr Bannon argued there was still time to turn that around and is launching a group, Citizens of the American Republic, to pitch the election as a vote to protect against that outcome.

“You can’t look at this as a mid-term and you can’t run it out of the traditional Republican playbook. If you do that, you’re going to get smoked,” he said.

The effort is a test of Mr Bannon’s sway in the GOP a year after he was fired from his White House post. His relationship with Mr Trump soured after a tell-all book published in January included searing quotes portraying Mr Trump as undisciplined and criticising son Donald Trump Jr.

His stock fell further when he stuck by Alabama Republican Roy Moore’s Senate campaign even after decades-old sexual misconduct allegations emerged. A ­reliably Republican Senate seat turned Democratic.

As he attempts a comeback, Mr Bannon acknowledged the challenges he faced, including an invigorated Democratic base. Less than three months from election day, Democrats need a net gain of 24 seats to retake the house, and the party is increasingly bullish about its chances after strong turnout in a series of special elections.

Mr Bannon said Republicans could gain ground if they focused on turning out Trump supporters.

“This is not about persuasion. It’s too late to persuade anybody. We’re 90 days away from this election. This is all about turnout and what I call base-plus,” he said.

While Mr Bannon makes his move, many Republicans view holding the house as an uphill battle. His new venture will focus on rapid response and polling with the goal of framing the election as an “up or down vote” on Mr Trump and impeachment. He is releasing a movie, Trump(at)War, geared at Trump supporters.

Mr Bannon said he was being backed by private donors, but he did not detail who was funding the effort or how much he had raised. He said his efforts were independent of the Republican National Committee, the White House or a Trump-supporting super political action committee.

In keeping with his mid-term mission, Mr Bannon defended Mr Trump on both policy and style, arguing that the President had an economic record to run on and had been making the right pitch on the campaign trail.

Mr Bannon backed Mr Trump’s aggressive tariffs, which have drawn criticism in agricultural states crucial to his victory. He argued they were a key part of Mr Trump’s nationalistic economic strategy.

“People in Iowa, once it’s explained to them, will fully support the President in this,” he said. “We don’t have a choice. We either win the economic war with China or we’re going to be a secondary, a tertiary power.”

He said Mr Trump’s culture wars, which have included public attacks on women and minorities, did not present a problem, calling it his “house style” and saying people should “separate out the signal from the noise”. He argued Mr Trump would benefit from shutting down the government over funding for his border wall, saying it would “galvanise the populist right”, though he acknowledged it was a minority view.

Mr Bannon also rejected the idea that a loss of the house could be a positive development for Mr Trump as it would give him a new foil heading into the 2020 presidential election. He called such notions “dangerously naive”.

AP