How Steve Bannon is ‘bending the Republican Party to his will’ with his extremist podcast

Onetime Trump administration chief strategist Steve Bannon is reshaping the Republican Party with his weekday "War Room" podcast according to a new analysis.

"'War Room,' as CNN’s Daniel Dale once put it, is 'kind of like Trump’s banned Twitter account revived in audio form.' Every weekday for three hours, Bannon convenes the heroes of MAGA world—people like Navarro, Boris Epshteyn, Matt Gaetz (R-FL), and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) —for a struggle session over the coronavirus, Biden’s presidency, the 2020 election, and, increasingly, the threat posed by China. It remains strikingly popular despite being banned from YouTube and Spotify," Dan Spinelli reported for Mother Jones magazine.

He reported subscribing to Bannon's podcast last November, subscribing through Apple Podcasts, where it has not been banned.

"To live in Bannon’s world, as I did those few weeks, is to see politics as a black-and-white contest between rugged champions and cowardly, sniveling traitors, whose biggest crime may be their weakness in confronting the ultimate evil: China. Any casual follower of US politics knows this cast of characters. Bannon is surrounded by Trump loyalists and other cheerleaders of the January 6 insurrection. Their villains are Biden, Kamala Harris, Anthony Fauci, and moderate Republicans," he reported.

READ: BUSTED: Steve Bannon admits he helped plot Jan. 6 Trump rally to 'kill Biden presidency in the crib'

Bannon's podcast has been described as "a religious crusade and call to arms" for insurrections by Bulwark writer Tim Miller.

"When Trump was in office, Asian Americans warned of blowback from his use of racist terms like “kung flu” to blame China for the coronavirus. That prediction came true as hate crimes against Asian Americans rose sharply during the pandemic. Bannon is preaching an even harsher gospel—and he’s bending the Republican Party to his will," Spinelli wrote. ""When not discussing China, War Room is flush with coronavirus disinformation and the pseudo-intellectual history lessons that have become Bannon’s signature. In fact, between the November 3 election and January 6, 2021, more than 75 percent of War Room episodes promoted the “Big Lie” that Trump actually won the 2020 election, according to a Brookings Institution analysis published in January."

Read the full report.