Republican leaders are rightly angry at Bannon, who was perhaps the chief architect of last night’s defeat in Alabama. After all, it was Bannon who championed Roy Moore at the expense of the establishment favorite Luther Strange. Working behind the scenes, Bannon also seems to have convinced Donald Trump to endorse Moore once he became the GOP nominee. Peter King channeled many Republican bigwigs when he took Moore’s loss as a chance to go after Bannon:
GOP Rep. Peter King slams Steve Bannon: "He looks like some disheveled drunk who wandered on to the political stage ... this is not the type of person we need in politics" https://t.co/txIFNRcxWI
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) December 13, 2017
The good news for Democrats is that Bannon has every intention of sticking around and continuing to foment internal Republican strife:
Source close to Bannon re: #AlSen: "This doesn't stop Steve's war against the establishment, all it does is pour gasoline on top of it."
— Kevin Cirilli (@kevcirilli) December 13, 2017
Bannon has two excuses to keep him going. One is that Moore’s defeat isn’t Bannon’s fault since Bannon actually preferred another candidate:
The word in Bannon’s camp this morning is that Mo Brooks would have won big. Moore was never Bannon’s first choice, Bannon allies say.
— Gabriel Sherman (@gabrielsherman) December 13, 2017
And if that doesn’t work, he can always blame Mitch McConnell and the Republican establishment for their insufficient enthusiasm for Moore, as Bannon already indicated he would do in the rally for Moore on the eve of the election.