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Republicans Warn There’ll Be Payback After Bannon Indictment

"This Country has perhaps never done to anyone what they have done to Steve Bannon, and they are looking to do it to others,"

Republicans are standing by former White House adviser Steve Bannon after being indicted for contempt of Congress, warning Democrats that there will be payback if they move forward with this charge.

The Seattle Times reported that Republicans are claiming that Democrats are “weaponizing” the Justice Department, adding that they will get revenge if they take back the House next year by going after aides of Joe Biden.

“For years, Democrats baselessly accused President Trump of ‘weaponizing’ the DOJ. In reality, it is the Left that has been weaponizing the DOJ the ENTIRE TIME – from the false Russia Hoax to the Soviet-style prosecution of political opponents,” Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), the third-ranking House Republican, tweeted over the weekend.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) posted a similar tweet.

“Joe Biden has eviscerated Executive Privilege,” Jordan wrote. “There are a lot of Republicans eager to hear testimony from Ron Klain and Jake Sullivan when we take back the House.”

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) made it clear that she can’t wait to get revenge once Republicans take back control of Congress.

“Now that Democrats have started these politically-motivated indictments for Contempt of Congress, I look forward to seeing their reactions when we keep that same energy as we take back the House next year!” Boebert declared on Twitter.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) kept things simple by tweeting the hashtag “#TeamBannon,” alongside a photo of the two of them chatting near Air Force One.

Former President Donald Trump even got in on the action by issuing a blistering statement in which he called out Republican members of Congress by name who had voted to either pass Biden’s $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan or hold Bannon in contempt, or in some cases both.

“This Country has perhaps never done to anyone what they have done to Steve Bannon, and they are looking to do it to others, also,” he said.

Bannon, who turned himself in this morning, said over the weekend that “thugs” run the New York Times and boasted that pro-Trump Republicans are “taking over all the elections.”

“We’re taking action, and that action is we’re taking over school boards, we’re taking over the Republican Party through the precinct committee strategy,” he said. “We’re taking over all the elections. Suck on this!”

The anti-Trump GOP strategist Doug Heye warned that Republicans defending Bannon could have implications for Congress’s oversight authority as an independent branch of government.

“Congress takes these things very seriously, and whether you’re talking about a Republican House or a Democratic House, the primacy of Congress and its oversight is paramount,” Heye said. “Republicans and Democrats should be able to unify on this. They obviously won’t. But if we have a Republican House in the future, they will have no hesitation in holding Democrats in contempt just as we’re seeing right now.”

It remains to be seen how this will all play out.

This piece was written by James Samson on November 15, 2021. It originally appeared in RedVoiceMedia.com and is used by permission.

 

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