MSNBC analyst asks Michael Wolff: 'Was Steve Bannon at any point drunk?'

Steve Bannon has alarmed some observers with his physical appearance, which President Donald Trump has mocked as "sloppy" now that he's fallen out of favor in the White House.

Social media users often joke that Bannon, who's frequently unshaven and disheveled, appears to be intoxicated or hungover -- and MSNBC analyst Mike Barnicle asked author Michael Wolff about the former White House official's habits.

"Was Steve Bannon at any point drunk during your conversations with him?" Barnicle asked.

Wolff, whose bombshell book Fire and Fury relied extensively on Bannon's interviews, paused to consider his response.

"Not to my knowledge, and in at least one instance, when offered a drink, he pushed it away," Wolff said.

"Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough then asked Wolff why Bannon, who was still working as the president's chief strategist, would say all the damaging things he did about Trump.

"I don't know if you remember the early years of the Reagan administration, when (then-White House budget director) David Stockman had a tape recorder put in front of him and basically just undercut every economic argument Ronald Reagan made, and people said why did he do it?" Scarborough said. "Why did Steve Bannon do this, and do you suspect his impulses were the same? He wanted to let the world know, I think, the lunacy of it."

Wolff agreed, saying he enjoyed incredible access inside a disorganized White House where the president welcomed him as a journalistic "big gun."

"Steve Bannon whether you agree with him or not, went into this White House with a very particular agenda, and I think that he found that it was extremely hard to implement the agenda, and that it probably wasn't going to be implemented," Wolff said.

"The opposite as Trump veered more toward (Senate Majority Leader) Mitch McConnell," he continued, "that was absolutely away from Steve Bannon. Then, I think, Steve Bannon was in this, and was kind of horrified by the fact that this White House was being run by Donald Trump's family, people who were not experienced, who -- and who were functionally Democrats."