Steve Bannon called Donald Trump’s selection of Mike Pence as his vice-presidential candidate “unfortunate” on the day it was announced, according to leaked emails.
In July 2016, as now, Bannon was executive chairman of the hard-right Breitbart website. He went on to become Trump’s campaign manager and then chief strategist, until leaving the White House in August.
On 15 July 2016 he was contacted by his then technology editor, Milo Yiannopoulos, about the choice of Pence, a former congressman who was then governor of Indiana.
According to emails reported by Buzzfeed on Tuesday, Bannon said of Pence’s nomination: “This is the price we pay for cruzbots and #nevertrump movement. An unfortunate necessity … very.”
In the Republican primary Pence had endorsed, albeit weakly, the Texas senator Ted Cruz. His selection by Trump was viewed at the time as an attempt to reach out to social conservatives skeptical of the thrice-married New York real estate developer.
The pick was widely reported to be the result of efforts by the then campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, to push Trump to unite a party bitterly divided by Trump’s rise to defeat a crowded primary field.
Pence has since become a vital Trump ally, with loyalists like Marc Short and Nick Ayres occupying key roles in the administration. The vice-president has become an ardent surrogate for Trump in controversies ranging from the infamous Access Hollywood tape about groping women to recent criticism from the Tennessee senator Bob Corker about the president’s unpredictable behavior.
This weekend, Pence walked out of a football game in Indianapolis after a number of San Francisco 49ers players kneeled in protest against police brutality during the national anthem.
Trump then said on Twitter: “I asked @VP Pence to leave stadium if any players kneeled, disrespecting our country. I am proud of him and @SecondLady Karen.”
Bannon is stepping up efforts to field primary challengers against a number of incumbent Republican senators in 2018, as he seeks to replace the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, with a Republican more supportive, in his view, of the Trump agenda.
