First Bannon News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

>> reporter: joining the debate, the chief strategist steve bannon slammed white supremacists to the progressive american prospect saying, et no nationalism, it's losers, it's a fringe element. we've got to help crush it, you know, help crush it more. at first bannon claimed he didn't know he was being interviewed. >> he called me. and weirdly he never said that we were off the record. >> reporter: but sources close to bannon said he intended them to divert attention from the president's comments on charlottesville. one source told cnn, bannon knew full well this would distract from criticism....

Good for the brand. >> i want to ask you about an interview steve bannon gave when he called up the editor of the american prospect and just started talking. he didn't think it was an interview, then he said apparently he told people that no i did it to distract people and it was act of genius, but more importantly, he said in this interview about north korea, there's no military solution, forget it. until somebody solves that shows me ten million people in seoul don't die in the first 30 minutes. i don't know what you're talking about. there's no military solution here. they got us. which see...

And i do respect that service. i can't imagine he has the sort of knowledge and expertise that those four generals have. he don't know jack about north korea. i don't know why the president would listen to him. >> i'm stunned that bannon would go and tell this person he's never met before, from the american prospect, you know, it's all just a bluff. there's no actual military option. >> and there's this idea that he's doing it just to distract from the story about charlottesville that it was some strategy, he said a number of things in there about trump and how this whole thing works for him. ...