Steve Bannon has said that the victory of Judge Susan Crawford, widely seen as the liberal candidate, in Tuesday’s Wisconsin Supreme Court election is likely to lead to the Republicans losing two seats in the House of Representatives which would “put us right on the cliff, the edge” of a third bid to impeach President Trump.
Bannon made the remarks on Wednesday during the latest edition of his War Room podcast, which Newsweek contacted by email on Thursday outside of regular office hours.
Why It Matters
During his first term as president from 2017-21 Trump was impeached twice, but both times not convicted, as neither of the cases against him achieved a two-thirds majority in the Senate.
A third impeachment bid would likely infuriate Trump’s supporters while offering succor to critics, some of whom have argued he poses a threat to American democracy.
What To Know
On his podcast Bannon, who briefly served as Trump’s chief White House adviser during his first administration, reacted to Crawford beating conservative-backed candidate Brad Schimel in Wisconsin and also to voters in the state choosing to entrench voter ID in the state’s constitution.
Referring to the voter ID referendum he said: “It won big league, yet we lost the Supreme Court seat and with that Supreme Court seat in addition to all the issues in Wisconsin of life and of being able to defend yourself, everything else. We’re going to lose two congressional seats; that’s just a fact.”
This was a reference to the prospect that the liberal controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court could now take up a Democratic supported challenge to the state’s current eight House of Representatives districts, which they claim are gerrymandered.
Out of the eight, only two have Democratic representatives, which the party claims is because the districts unfairly benefit the GOP. The Wisconsin Supreme Court declined to take up the case last year, but Bannon now expects it to reconsider.
DOMINIC GWINN/Middle East Images/AFP/GETTY
Bannon continued: “These radical Democrats, it was over $100 million spent, they didn’t put this kind of money in not to take those two seats and those two seats put us right on the cliff, the edge, of them trying to impeach President Trump and it raises the stakes in 2026 even higher and I told you this was going to happen.”
Currently the Republicans have a slim majority in both the House and Senate, but that could change after the November 2026 midterm elections. A successful impeachment bid would require a simple majority in the House and a two-thirds majority in the Senate, meaning the Democrats would either have to make dramatic midterm gains in the upper chamber or have the support of some GOP Senators.
Trump was acquitted in an impeachment trial for the first time in February 2020 on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, which failed to achieve the requisite two-thirds support in the Senate. A second attempt to impeach Trump, this time for inciting an insurrection, also failed in February 2021 following the January 6 2021 Capitol Hill riot for the same reason.
What People Are Saying
Speaking on his podcast Bannon said: “Folks, we cannot afford to lose a congressional seat right now. President Trump’s agenda hangs by a thread … We won a massive battle in November, an incredible battle, a come from behind out of nowhere battle, but its one battle in a continuing war against people who still control the apparatus, look at President Trump in court, I don’t know, 100 lawsuits.”
Speaking to Yahoo about the state’s election districts Wisconsin House Democrat Rep. Mark Pocan said: “If you have two seats out of eight in a purple, 50-50 state, clearly there’s gerrymandering going on.”
What Happens Next
Unless there’s a dramatic change of mood within the Republican Party the Democrats will need big midterm gains, especially in the Senate, to have a realistic chance of successfully impeaching Trump.
