A focus on steve bannon. Why is that . Guest we just finishedoad tt making a film called trumps road to the white house in january. We talked to Kellyanne Conway and everybody around us the moment of the present selection and we wanted bannon and one of our producers said the texan said we would like you to come back we are shooting a trump tower and bannon wrote basically you dont want me. All you guys want to do is make me darth vader. That was after the media saying theres got to be more to this guy than he is selfaware. I wanted to know everything i can about him and i spent the last months going and behind the this sort of fireworks around the Trump Administration and the chaos and disruption which i always felt with a little bit of the dodge. I went down inside to what we are still looking forward to this shakespearean struggle going on in and around the oval office and thats where we reside in our broadcast tonight. Host when it comes to steve bannon whats the perception that you talk about and what have you found out by looking at him specifically . One person told me that bannon is the message and trump is the messenger. Its not quite as clearcut as that. Obviously trump has a wellknown perspective. The people inside the films they trump was spectacularly good at the gut instinct and a been reading breitbart, the web site that bannon was the executive editor of in washington out of a place called the Breitbart Embassy over by the supreme court. It was bannon who everybody said managed to take trumps gut instinct and turned them into what was known as bannonism which is an ideology that made a coherent post trump was saying about America First about the ai muslims and the muslim ban as they talked about all the time and islamic terrorists. All of those kinds of phrasess and all of that has a sort ofent coherence that leads back to the immigration battle that happened elecapitol hill in 2013 and 2014 in the 2012 election. Bannonism, the sort of coherent structure you saw around trump in those of august through november when he won the presidency. Host you can see that on cbs. Michael kirk joining us. If you want to ask questionsgs about things hes learned while the king at steve gannon. 202 7488001 for republicans and independents by 202 7488002. Your reference to bit from a the documentary tonight about how the executive chairman of end breitbart ended up coming into contact with donald trump and we will show it to you. His influence was growing a now banned and renewed hisl search for a political warrior who could transform the country bannon is someone who has been looking for a figurehead to attach himself to it for a very long time. In new york city there was a breitbart reader who was just the person bannon was looking for. Trump was reading and digesting breitbart views as long ago as 2013, 2014 and internalizing these things. C nobody cared about donald trump and politics in 2014. Bannon had been introduced to trump by david rossi ahead of the conservative Advocacy Group citizens united. Bossy and bannon our friendsi bannon said come over and meet donald trump is thinking of running for president so they all meet up at the trump towert in new york and they talk about it. I had known steve bannon for 10 years work done a lot of. Projects. Hes one of the greatest strategic mind that i have ever been around. Trump continues to keep the relationship going with bannon from that point on. In trump bannon had found a fighter who matched his own instincts. Breitbart, palin trump are antiestablishment figures and o think that appeals to them and its more about destroying enemies and thats where he and trump me. They are very much. Host mr. Kirk to that last point about destroying enemies talk about that and the fact that you spoke with someone formerly of breitbart and david bossi as well. Guest the thing when trump and bannon got together that first time in almost every time after that there was a common quality that they shared in the sort of real fighter instinct. You saw that manifest after the firing of comey in the pushback that was happening when trump went to the Coast Guard Academy last weekend and gave the commencement address insteadfi fight, fight, fight. Im going to go for it. That is pure bannonism 100 . I think thats really the thing they have in common trump says he recognized the wealthy guy i who was kind of like him. I think theres an awful lot about the two of them that is very much the same including that instincts to go after people, hit them when they are down. Winners and losers in trump got it from his father back when he was a little boy. His father kept saying in the dichotomy of the world there are winners and losers in the donald r. Winner. Thats very much also the steve bannon back story. Thats how the two of them really got to know each other and enjoy each other and even to this day when bannon under the craftsman in some way, bannon is there representing the base. A lot of the people we haveart p talked the breitbart people ande others say bannon identified early first and sarah palin and then through breitbart or the readers comments from breitbart who dat who that base was in trump was also identified as a nativist orientation and America First idea that hadnt really been seen by the republican establishment. Y bannon that sort of explains why bannon and breitbart when after the republican establishment through the immigration battle adding on Jeff Sessions the senator from alabama that had collaborated with them. Steven miller sessionsd communications director. The three of them in the breitbart staff really took down or participated seriously and importantly in the taking down of harry cancer and the other members of the republican establishment including john boehner. They were kind of painkillers in that sense and thats what brought the attention of trump and that relationship is what brought rum to the white house. Host the term ill write mark altright tends to be affiliated with breitbart. Guest a lot of people say he couldnt be the editorinchief of breitbart without eating a racist or in antisemi. We have talked to an awful lot of people about it. Heres the consistent approach and there are people of course say you couldnt run that web site with sections like black crime and illegal alien crime and engenders the kind of comments you could read atly breitbart with a misogynist and xenophobic quote. Talke others we talked to said wait a minute the guy personally said they have never seen him or heard him say anything say anything racist or xenophobic at what they say is it is true that running that site creates certain complications. Others say no matter who you are if you are a prominent and he is one of the top three really out there fringe republican conservatives, you were going to naturally get to pick what thosn descriptions by the liberal left and the elite media. In a way its a question thats not answered in our film. Its a question that i leave to the viewer and the American People to decide based on the information thats available to them. Host michael kirk is our guest and you can see that special tonight on pbs bannons war on the frontline program. Our first call for you is from cal in new york on the democrats line. You are on with michael kirk. Go ahead. Caller good morning mr. Kirk. I have been a big fan of your filmmaking on pbs for years and years and also a special shout out to will lineman who was also a narrator for pbs going back to the 50s. He is irish reassuring voice as you are. I wanted to your subject at all greens discussion about the Trump Administration and how all your films going back to your analysis of the Bush Administration and the iraq war. I always look forward to your documentaries this in terms of some kind of revelation someone behindthescenes action of the administration. I guess many viewers see them, journalism as a door to damagina evidence that wouldnt necessarily lead to impeachment but just a condemnation or a revelation. Host what are you looking for for our guest as far as a statement or comment . What you want to have them respond to . Caller i just wondered how his motives as a filmmaker coincide with the native viewers to watch this film to get that kind of inside information that may justify their negative views of the administration or any improprieties or illegalities that they may have conducted. Guest i think we have probably made 11 films about the bush of administration in the iraq war and torture issues and things like that. We made eight films about the Obama Administration. Equally i think touching a raw nerve here and there and here we are now in the second, hurd found. We made a film called the choicd where we put in the biography of Hillary Clinton and donald trumi last september. This is the first of what will probably be nine or 10 or 12 films in 48 years depending on how long the Trump Administration last. We are here for serious longform journalism to take the high road to the 30,000foot view not above the fray of politics but to get down in there and say how do these dots connect . You think you know a lot about whats been happening with trump. Its been in the headlines every day. Last week a shocking revelation. We think it will help you understand some of the motivation and some of the shakespearean war going on behind all of those headlines and all of those groups. In im not really in the scoop business but im in the connecting scoops business they get to see a real trend and that trend is establishing itself in a way that i hope our viewers over the years now as they have with the clinton first of administration and the bush ofon administration and then the Obama Administration witnessed a slightly different view than it did from the nightly news. Host from Pennsylvania Democratic line fred, go ahead. Thanks for taking my call. I have watched your films and im a fan of frontline. Could you give me some of your opinion on what might have been the feud between bannon and do you have any idea . I do have a pretty good sense of that. During the campaign they were real allies because jared and ivanka understood that they had then was the guy who pulled itwh all together and rationalize trumps policies. He kept them on the straight and clinow tim off twitter in those less important days when they were breaching Hillary Clintons wall. I think by the time they got to the white house band and philosophy created chaos and destruction and that works very well to get trump elected. They promised they would create chaos and disruption all over washington. They would drain the swamp and i think when it seemed to be working kushner was with him and ivanka was with him at that time. Bannon is a little like the kamikaze or the che guevara to fidel castro. Those guys dont last very long once you assume the problems of governing so everybody wondered bannon himself how long bannon could win and last with this. Disruption and chaos. Nt it lasted about a month and what stopped him was at least made him go underground a little bit andys trying to come back now with the idea that you went to cpac the conservative Political Action groups annual meeting and he stepped up and the jrue the light to himself. He was then on the cover of Time Magazine called the great manipulator. Saturday night live made skits about him being the real president of the United States and it didnt take long forr of jared to draw the attention ofhi the president s prospects fatherinlaw to the idea thata bannon who admits to all the other collapses around the travel ban and other things that steve bannon was giving a littli big for his britches and it didnt take long for trump who we all know is all about the spotlight is on me. We talked to people who save with its failure to trump is looking for someone to blame and trump wants to be the one that receives all the credit in the oval office. Its not a surprise that happened that when it happened to bannon. Host we did seem a cpac in february tech about the media perceptions of the donald trump and what they did wrong about it. What do you have to say in response . Corporate globalist media that are adamantly opposed, adamantly opposed to an economic nationalist agenda like donald trump has the President Trump laid this out many years ago for cpac and cpac originally gave him the springboard. The first time in right part we started seeing him and saw how people resonated with people and they would go out to the smaller town halls later and keep that traction with the same message he is bringing. Heres where it gets worse because he is going to continue to prep his agenda and his Economic Conditions get better as more jobs get better. They will continue to fight. C if you think they will give you your country back without a fight you are sadly mistaken. Ayv [applause] every day its going to be a f fight and that is what im proudest of donald trump. Its all the opportunity had to waiver. E all the people of come in and said hes a moderate. I committed to does to the American People are promised when iran im going to deliver on this. Bann host there is mr. Bannons defense. I think what you see there is a perfect example of who bannon is to donald trump. P. Bannon is the base. Bannon represents the base. Jared kushner and ivanka and the wall street people that are around and the billionaires who are around President Trump represent a more moderate perspective of a more wall street establishment spectrum. Bannon continues to be the representative of the face and his job as he sees it is to create the kind of chaos and disruption that the base selected donald trump to go in there and do to drain the swamp. As the perfect articulation of the modus operandi and thee reason i think steve bannon is still around donald trumpe despite what looks like a at times especially now a sort of more moderate stance. The fact is whenever the rubber meets the road and whenever theg going gets tough and the controversy starts to build it seems like donald trump reverts back to what steve bannon tells him when he is in the oval office which is fight, fight, fight. They are not going to give your country. Theyre not going to give you this government the way you wanted to be mr. President. You are going to have to go get it and you will have to go to china in order to do that. Bannon has in his office whiteboards on which he has written the promise is trump made during the campaign and how they are doing on them and they think the reminder of that over and over to the president of the United States is what tanden sees as his role and its how we perceive what hes supposed to bedoing. His elbows are getting sharper and sharper in the many factions and Reince Priebus and mike pence faction. Solve a swirling seething donald trump has surrounded him with and bannon right now is probably laying a little zero but he will be back again with those elbows in the theory of fight, fight,h fight. Thats exactly what you saw in that clip. Host terry on the independent line. Caller good morning to everyone. I just wanted to say as soon as the Transition Team and i think that was mostly guided by pence and ryan was formed to bannon lost right there because this is truly a globalist agenda nothing that trump had ran on and it looks like if anybody wants to drain the swamp why would you put that swamp monsters, the godzillas in charge . With these competing factions who is going to win and in who is going to lose . The American People are going to lose. To my vote for trump is certainly mistaken we need to rectify it. I dont know how we are going to do this but we have got to do this. If you just take a look, i was watching Congress Last week overturning time and a half for workers. Theres a lot of vulnerable gullible workers who are taken advantage of and its things like this. E to me it looks like big oil, the military and the industrialve complex. Guest ive been watching the president since jimmy carter in every administration has thit fight. What most administrations do not have is the super Friends Group of people in some unlike steve e bannon inside the government. There are people who get him elected but to stay inside the government and be vital and said the government the west wing is extremely rare thing. Bannon brought with him three or four people. Jeff sessions the attorney a general for all the key ones and thats usually my view of the white house. There are people in that oval office who were the former radicals, the outsiders and the french people who are now in the west wing. Its interesting to watch and see how long they can last and how long they can withstand the forces that have come on every sitting president to get more to the center to get more into the globalist perspective that the world is operating under and has been for a number of years. It is bannons existence inside their bed from what i can tell the days to satisfy the least trump is listing some of the time in that span is one hope of winning whatever winning is to him inside this particular administration. He will take a populist president and keep him in that place that he was then when he was running and right after he was elected. He will appear backandforth but especially domestically this is where bannon says im the base and i represent the base. If you dont want me out of your site because otherwise that side of it, that radicalio revolutionary provocateur approach to government that drained the swamp will never bes satisfied if i am gone and ii think trump hears that. Its clear that he acts on it whenever he is in a bind and its also true from what we can tell from the poll numbers and a few numbers and others that a very High Percentage of thep trump true believers are still with him. I think an awful lot of that can be contributed bannons push and demand that trump ip what will happen after this trip . He will happen when they get back here . Are will happen when the independent counsel or whatever he is called now, special kouns counsel begins to really investigate and that starts to hurt, how will the president respond . E, my guess is the president will respond by fighting back like he did before he went up to the middle east. Host michael in alabama calling on our republican line. O caller i want to tag about bannon. You saw when they tried to do the immigration with the gang of eight and after that they absolutely were marco rubio down to nothing and just went after him so bad. I think thats whats wrong with the republican party. They are afraid of bannon and breitbart coming after him and it just drives me crazy that people listen and watch breitbart. You can see all the headlines and its crazy. F. Why these people even see this kind of stuff but i see at influencing the freedommeant, conference. If it keeps going like that republicans can just hang it up. Guest that was certainly bannons approach at breitbart was just incredible how the web site changed when Andrew Wright bart ran it. Of course it was more hollywood centric. It was big hollywood. When they consolidated primarily the focus to washington the alliance with Jeff Sessions, the immigration battle and getting at the republican establishment leadership, that was all a massive plan they really did work. Their numbers of hits and people who use breitbart as theirir primary news source was a Phenomenal Growth over three or four years and its what donald trump plugged into and got when he got bannon. Its been a real revolutionary change in that sense i think in terms of the way and again you read stuff on the immigration battle. Doubt was breitbart and bannon and miller and sessions really flexing their muscles and when that happened a lot of republicans didnt really know which way to go and decided they were not going to go out there and join the democrats in the bipartisan immigration bill and that spoke volumes toward trump and volumes to sessions andow bannon as well and you see the result of that now. Host mr. Kirk you are listed as a chief strategist that you saw what happened when the republicans did the travel ban rated thats bruce steve bannon . Guest i can imagine that it didnt. Also didnt mention the trump after the cpac and all thet headlines removed to bannon from the National Security council where he really didnt belong. He had never been in the military. He had never had any National Security clearances or anything else. It was a little odd to see him there but he was removedni unceremoniously and then of course the president uttered those words. He was the good guy, he works for me for the wall streetaily journal and the daily news. It had to hurt and i thought at the time well we now are at the end of our film which is this, cause he comes to washingtonn this insurgency comes to washington that works inside the government and lasts about a month. Nth, by by the 100th day we noticed there was steve bannon again flying on the helicopter sitting next to the president going to harrisburg. Wa the very night that the washington Correspondents Dinner was happening when trump decided he wasnt going to attend he is in harrisburg at a steve bannon production and campa full of the true faithful and the speech that is just like a campaign speech. It was then and back in play and bannons ideas. During the firing of comey and all of that even though bannon g reportedly was not in favor of letting comey go at that time there was bannon i assure you recommending that the president fight back and he sure did. Aroln host this is james in North Carolina on the independent line. Caller thank you very much for taking my call. I just wanted your opinion, making in comparison between trump and obama and i understand all leaders normally have some very strongwilled influence by some individual so trump seems to have bannon as a conservative of America First approach. Obama seemed to have influencem also from Reverand Wright and more of the nonconservative and perhaps not America First. I feel like i have more faith in obama and the direction he was headed and though clinton and ws hillary and Anthony Weiners wife. I am leaning more towards the influence of trump in the conservative viewpoints than i have with obama in hiswa background so i just wanted to get your opinion and response. President ial interviews with them, but interview of everybody hat knows them, comparison of the character of the people. Along the way, you get to know the people who influenced or influenced who various categorys and ive been doing this back before george w. Bush. The thing. Obama is very different than in this sense. He had many advisors around him, sees himself as the brains of the out fit. He ran the state department the white house. Hillary had the job, but wasnt eally doing very much individual action. Arguments t of the that were had about what to do many syria, red line, saw things obama took that upon himself, he listened to people. He was rea really his own guy in awful lot of ways. Trump is a different character are in that sense. He as, always has had someone close to him, a kind of congsigliere type, but i dont mean that in demeaning way it might be taken. He always has somebody close to him. Row cohn was his first attorney and longlasting compatriot in most of the battles when trump was a builder and a developer. Steve bannon in some ways is the new manifestation of row cohn. Roy cohn. With ideology. He comes with a finally honed sense of the world, sievizational struggle view that america is already in kind of a world war iii with the muslimrl world and he feels it very strongly. His very first documentary which we showed tonight pieces from and talk about, a really a nod to ronald reagan, bannons great hero at the time. M it is about the civilizational struggle reagan stepped up to, knaus he syism, fascism, communism, that reagan stepped up to. Bannon thinks 9 11 was manifestation of next beginning of next war. Al he has been searching, he was hoping for palin, he has been searching for someone to be a political warrior for america. Trump was willing recipient of that ideology and understanding. He has influence much different than David Axelrod or karl rove or Something Like that with the other president s. This is a special relationship. It has come up against a family relationship which is jared and ivanka. Host gotcha. Mr. Kirk i wish we could continue to. We have to end it here. Michael kirk, documentaryho filmmaker, bannons war. See on pbss front line. Mr. Kirk, thank you for the time. Pest guest youre more than welcome. Washington journal live every day with issues that impact you. Wednesday morning the hills Katie Williams discusses house and Senate Investigation into russian interference in the 2016 campaign. Tea Party Patriots cofounder Jenny Beth Martin discusses President Trumps 2018 budget. California congressman ted liu weighs in on the president s 2018 budget. Watch cspans washington journal, live 7 00 eastern wednesday morning. Join the discussion. Sunday on q a i had a friend who was vaporized along with a sixman Security Team that i had built together and sent to the airport. It took three weeks to separate them all. It is, war is not a game. It is not a funny thing. Former counterterrorism and intelligence officer, malcolm nance on his career, the most recent book, the plot to hack america, how wikileaks tried to hijack the 2016 election. It came out of hijacking isis while we were writing hacking isis, we found there were two hacks that were done against one tv 5, in france, and another one against the german boon desstag was methodologies, malware introduced and the place where the servers terminated that were stealing the information were certainly not isis. They were what are now known as apt28, right . Cozy bear. Cozy bear was the name that crowdstrike, the cybersecurity company, gave for their interpretation of this malware package that belonged to Russian Military intelligence, the gru. Sunday night at 8 00 eastern on cspans q a. The Canadian National defensemen sister visited d. C. This week where he took part in a discussion at the wilson center. Focused on u. S. Defense cooperation, canadas defense policy review, nato peacekeeping operations and the importance of modernizing the north American Aerospace defense command. It runs just short of an hour. [applause] good afternoon. Im jane harman, president and ceo of the wilson center. Someone who is fascinated by defense and Security Issues and it has been a long time, a mile from here in a place that is getting a of