Bannon Urges GOP 'To Get Tougher' In Macomb County Speech

WARREN, MI – A day after Democrats took key victories in Virginia and elsewhere on Election Day, Steve Bannon, the former chief strategist for President Trump, was in Macomb County with a message for conservatism: “We’ve got to get tougher.”

Bannon, the executive chairman of the right-wing media outlet Breitbart News and Trump's chief strategist until he was ousted in August, spoke during the Macomb County Republican Party Unity Dinner on Wednesday. He described to the audience his vision for reshaping the GOP and break from establishment Republicans.

His address to some 750 Republicans sounded much like a stump speech for Trump and the continuation of his agenda – and the plans to keep it rolling for the 2018 election cycle.

“2018 is fast approaching,” Bannon said. “If we’re going to take our country back and make it the country it used to be … you’re going to have to fight for it.”

Meantime, outside the event, protesters gathered and objected to Bannon for fostering white supremacy and white nationalism across the nation, according to a report from the Detroit News.

Bannon inside the hall, reflected on the 2016 election, one that many people was going to go to Democrat Hillary Clinton. Instead, voters he said, ignored the media and voted for Trump. He gave a specific shout out to Macomb County, were voters shifted from supporting a Democrat in 2008 and 2012 — President Obama — to the Republican last year.

“The three or four counties in the country that turned it around? You guys are one of them,” Bannon told the audience. “Macomb County’s got to lead the way.”

Bannon pointed to Republican Ed Gillespie, who was endorsed by Trump, but lost the election to be Virginia’s gubernatorial race to Democrat Ralph Northam on Tuesday. Shortly after Gillespie’s defeat, Trump slapped him with a nasty tweet, saying he “didn’t embrace me.”

Bannon agreed with Trump’s sentiment, and called Gillespie a “good guy,” but one who’s too close to the Republican establishment.

Similarly, Bannon pummeled the mainstream Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Bannon acknowledged that McConnell has accomplished some Republican agenda items, but only because he was pushed.

“You cannot be nice to these guys, you have to drop the hammer on them,” Bannon said of influencing the so-called establishment Republicans.

Image from YouTube video