Steve Bannon's Bad Day: Allegations of Voter Fraud and Domestic Violence Trump's newest campaign CEO, Stephen Bannon of "alt-right" (i.e. white nationalist, conspiracy-theory-heavy, thoroughly disgusting) website Breitbart, is the latest Trump campaign honcho with, shall we say, an "interesting" past. And not exactly helping with Trump's problem with women. "On Thursday night, the New York Post and other outlets reported that Stephen Bannon was charged with misdemeanor domestic violence, battery, and dissuading a witness in 1996, after an altercation with his then-wife in Santa Monica, California. According to a police report, Bannon’s spouse said he pulled at her neck and wrist. A spokesman told Politico that Bannon was never questioned by police and pleaded not guilty. The charges were dropped around the time that the couple divorced later that year. In divorce proceedings, she outlined several vulgarities Bannon allegedly used." (more details on the alleged domestic violence in the links. Note that "dissuading a witness" in this case means Bannon telling his then-wife "you'd better not testify against me.") But wait, there's more. He's also registered to vote where he does not live. Which is, you know, voter fraud. "The fact that Bannon’s registration is not on the up-and-up is particularly damaging because Trump has in recent weeks been warning that “rigged” elections and voter fraud were “the only way we can lose” the election. Concerns about voter fraud, often with racial overtones, are a longstanding feature of American politics. More recently, a long string of states have worked to impose stricter voter requirements, eliminating or cutting same-day registration and early voting or requiring voters to show photo ID. But voting experts point out that there are virtually no documented cases of in-person voter fraud, where someone shows up and votes in someone else’s name. More common are cases where someone is registered at an address where they don’t live—just like Bannon. It’s not altogether uncommon for people to have failed to update old registrations, but it’s particularly embarrassing for Bannon, since he is running a presidential campaign, no less one that is warning about widespread fraud. Moreover, the Guardian reports that Bannon may have previously registered at an address in Florida where he did not live. Wilfullly providing false voter-registration information in Florida is a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison." (Note that the ex-wife detailed in this link is a different ex. I've read about 3 now. Are there more?) So let's recap. First Trump hires as campaign honcho Cory Lewandowski, known (like Trump) for his hair trigger temper and misogynistic statements. His own getting-too-physical with a woman incident happened this Spring, and although we can argue all day about how hard he pushed her, it certainly didn't look good that he said he "never touched her," when the tape revealed that yes he did. Although ostensibly fired from the campaign, by all accounts he is still advising it, and was still receiving a paycheck as recently as last month (no word on August yet). Then Trump hires Paul Manafort, already one of the worst people on the planet - his previous jobs included running PR for some truly vile and murderous dictators, pushing the narrative in the US that "oh, they're not so bad." (I mean, who DOES that, who has a conscience?) More recently, of course, he did similar work for the Ukranian strongman with ties to Putin, and - oops! - may have been caught laundering money for him and taking a nice cut for himself. Now he's gone. And then in come the Brieitbart guy - you can easily google some of the racist, anti-Semitic and misogynist headlines that he blasted during his tenure - PLUS Roger Ailes as an "unofficial" advisor. Ailes, of course, was just fired from Fox after Gretchen Carlson's lawsuit and the scads of other women who came forward, a la Cosby, to say he'd done it to them too. (And we're talking Roger Ailes here, so... I mean, there just aren't enough w's in "ewwwwwwwwwwww.") Yeah, Donnie, you know how to pick 'em. I'm sure this latest domestic violence revelation by the guy who hand-picked (and vetted oh so well!) will help win those suburban women you need to not be a steaming piece of toast on November 9.
