Bannon, former chief strategist to President
Donald Trump, gave his first major interview since being ousted from the White
House. Steve Bannon, former
chief strategist to President Donald Trump, claims Catholic Church leaders
oppose Trump’s decision to end a programme protecting young undocumented
immigrants because they believe in “unlimited illegal immigration” and need
“illegal aliens to fill the churches.”
In an excerpt of a “60
Minutes” interview released Thursday ― Bannon’s first major interview since
being ousted from the White House last month ― he told CBS’s Charlie Rose that
“it’s obvious” the church condemned Trump’s decision due to its own interests. “They need illegal
aliens to fill the churches,” Bannon said. “It’s obvious on the face of it.”
He continued, “Catholic
bishops condemn him because they have an economic interest. They have an
economic interest in unlimited immigration, unlimited illegal immigration.” Catholic bishops have
roundly criticized the Trump administration’s decision on Tuesday to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, programme, former President
Barack Obama’s move to protect so-called Dreamers, undocumented immigrants who
were brought to the U.S. at a young age.
Church leaders
supported Obama’s efforts to help undocumented immigrants, and some Catholic
churches have opened their doors to them as part of the “sanctuary” movement. But immigration hard-liners
on the far right believe Trump did not go far enough in restricting
immigration, as he is now calling on Congress to find a legislative solution to
address Dreamers’ status.
Bannon said on Thursday
that he disagreed with Trump’s decision. When Rose discussed how
the Catholic Church ― including the head of New York City’s archdiocese,
Cardinal Timothy Dolan ― has opposed Trump’s stance on immigration, Bannon, who
is Catholic, said that church leaders “have been terrible about this.”
“As much as I respect
Cardinal Dolan and the bishops on doctrine, this is not doctrine. This is not
doctrine at all,” Bannon said. “I totally respect the pope and I totally
respect the Catholic bishops and cardinals on doctrine. This is not about
doctrine. This is about the sovereignty of a nation. And in that regard,
they’re just another guy with an opinion.”
Dolan called Trump’s
decision “an ominous development” on Tuesday and pledged to support Dreamers. “This is contrary to
the spirit of the Bible and of our country, and a turning away from the ideals
upon which our beloved country was founded,” he said in a statement. “All of
the ‘Dreamers’ who now face such uncertainty and fear, please know that the
Catholic Church loves you, welcomes you, and will fight to protect your rights
and your dignity.”
The Archdiocese of New
York did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Bannon’s remarks. After being ousted from
the White House last month amid simmering tensions and a torrent of scandals
and controversies within the Trump administration, Bannon has returned to the
right-wing website Breitbart News, which he led before joining Trump’s campaign
last summer.
Bannon on Thursday
defended Trump’s widely condemned response to last month’s violence in
Charlottesville, Virginia, in which the president was reluctant to directly
single out the white supremacist, KKK and neo-Nazi groups who incited the
violence. “What he was trying to
say is that people that support the monument staying there peacefully and
people that oppose that, that’s the normal course of First Amendment,” Bannon
said.
“When he’s talking
about the neo-Nazis and neo-Confederates and the Klan, who, by the way, are
absolutely awful. There’s no room in American politics for that. There’s no
room in American society for that,” he continued. “And all Donald Trump was
saying is, ‘Where does it end? Does it end, in taking down the Washington
Monument? Does it end, in taking down Mount Rushmore? Does it end at taking
Churchill’s bust out of the Oval Office?”
Trump’s fiery press
conference caused consternation for Republican leaders and administration
officials. Later that week,
Trump’s economic adviser, Gary Cohn, gave a candid interview to the Financial
Times in which he suggested that he had considered resigning. Bannon criticized Cohn
on Thursday, saying that he “absolutely” should have done so: “If you don’t
like what he’s doing and you don’t agree with it, you have an obligation to
resign.”
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