Article by Thomas Lifson in "The American Thinker":
If
Steve Bannon is correct (and I think he probably is), Michael Bloomberg
has no intention of occupying the Oval Office; his real plan is far
more devious and frightening. Bloomberg is investing a small fraction of
his fortune (Bannon says it is now $70 billion) in a “leveraged buyout”
of the party, installing himself as the oligarch who calls the shots,
including the selection of the candidate to win the presidency.
Forget
the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on the “Mike will get it
done” ads saturating the airwaves and the Super Bowl ad touting gun
control. According to Bannon, with the addled and corrupt Biden
faltering, Bloomberg is fighting a holding action to prevent Bernie
Sanders from capturing the nomination and thus taking over the party and
converting it into an explicitly socialist party. Win (unlikely) or
lose, a Sanders candidacy would hand leadership of the party to
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who will be old enough for the presidency in
the 2024 election. Bannon notes that she has become the face of the
Sanders campaign in Iowa while he was tied up in the impeachment trial.
She is an outright socialist intent on nationalizing the means of
production and is therefore incompatible with Bloomberg’s intent to run
the party and the country by financing its political campaigns and
operating expenses with outlays that don’t strain his net worth but
enable it to outspend the opposition.
But even more surprising is Bannon’s scenario for Bloomberg’s real plan. In the second half of a long (almost 16 minutes) interview yesterday with Maria Bartiromo (the entire interview is embedded at the bottom of this post), Bannon stated (transcript via Real Clear Politics):
… the
whole thing is rigged. And the Democrats, and particularly the Bernie
Sanders supporters, should understand, you're playing in a rigged game.
And here's the thing.
BARTIROMO: You don't think he wants to be president?
BANNON: I think he -- look, he knows he's not going to beat Donald Trump. He knows he's not going to win the nomination.
BARTIROMO: You said he wants to be something else, not...
(CROSSTALK)
BANNON: He's -- he's basically doing a leveraged buyout of the Democratic Party, is what he's doing.
He's an LBO of the Democratic Party to control the Democratic Party to select who their candidate is going to be and use his capital, OK, and organization and technology to defeat Trump.
And that's why this is very dangerous. Now you are seeing an oligarch actually step over, has no chance at all to actually defeat Trump as a presidential candidate, do something that's much more dangerous to this republic.
That's why it's got to be followed. And it's serious. Remember, he can apply and capital like nobody else. He's worth 70 -- over $70 billion now.
BARTIROMO: Wow.
BANNON: So, he can put that -- he can put this to work, but...
BARTIROMO: Money matters.
BANNON: Here's -- here's the point about the actions.
There's no personality out there that can beat Trump, and there's no set of policies. The policies are so radical. Trump's policies have blue-collar people outperforming white-collar finally as far as wage growth goes.
This is a striver's economy built by Donald Trump with his tax cuts and particularly his deregulation. He's now got the nation hitting on all cylinders in a troubled world economy, OK?
And this is what -- this is why Bloomberg, Nancy -- remember, he wouldn't never have been impeached if Bloomberg hadn't given Nancy Pelosi $100 million for her candidates.
BARTIROMO: Right.
BANNON: He won 21 of those 20.
He's taking -- he's taking $100 million of advertising during the impeachment just to hammer Trump.
BARTIROMO: So, the president tweeted last night: "Mini Mike is now negotiating both to get on the Democratic primary debate stage and to have the right to stand on boxes or a lift during the debates. This is something -- sometimes done, but not fair."
Do you think that is why...
BANNON: I love the way that President Trump can get personal very quickly.
BARTIROMO: Do you think that's why they changed the rules, because he gave $100 million to the DNC last year, and he's pledging up to $2 billion?
BANNON: Absolutely.
BARTIROMO: That's why they changed the rules?
BANNON: He's doing a leveraged buyout of the Democratic Party.
And the centrists, the Wall Street faction, the global corporatists, they understand Joe Biden. Joe Biden's performance in Iowa has been pathetic. And if you watch it closely, only two-thirds of the things are full. The little V.F. halls, they are full.
He's not on point. He can't bring the heat. They understand -- they understand Mayor Pete, a small-town mayor from Indiana, is not going to be president. There's no centrist candidate.
That's why Biden -- that's why Bloomberg money's coming in to get him more stature. Now, he's not going to be the nominee, I don't think. And there's no chance he can beat Trump.
So -- but they...
BARTIROMO: Are we going to see a brokered convention? Where is this going?
Hillary Clinton said...
BANNON: Yes, Hillary Clinton.
BARTIROMO: Hillary Clinton is not done talking about Bernie Sanders.
In a podcast, she says: It's not my experience from 2016 that what -- that he's going to unite the party. Nobody trusts him. You can't work with him.
I mean, he's still -- she's still trashing Bernie Sanders.
BANNON: Bloomberg money's and Clinton -- in a brokered convention, the centrists will look to Clinton to save the -- save the party, as I have said, when they don't have a centrist.
And the specter -- remember, Bernie Sanders is AOC. Bernie Sanders is AOC's third term. It just happens to be the first. Bernie's surge has come since Bernie's been back in Washington on the impeachment trial.
It's AOC in Iowa. She has taken over that one taking over that wing of the Democratic Party, or the socialist party. They're really not Democrats. Remember, she said, in any other country in the world, Joe Biden and I wouldn't be in the same party.
So, she's taken over the socialists. She's become the mini rock star out there as they have gone around. That Bernie surge -- and the Bernie and AOC people should understand something. When they get to the bottom of what happened on this poll, Bernie would have been up.
This was completely the Democratic apparatus and guys like Bloomberg to try to suppress what you're doing as left-wing populists.
If
this is true, Bloomberg is carrying out an unprecedented head fake,
using the cover provided by Trump Derangement Syndrome in order to
convert our political system to a de facto plutocracy. With very few exceptions,
the Left, normally averse to wealthy people purchasing political power,
is remaining silent because expelling President Trump from the Oval
Office is their sole concern. They raise no objections, and even refuse
to properly name the emerging system. An oligarch is personally paying
for the operations of a political party and buying political offices
using advertising, paid field staff (Bloomberg already has 500
operatives on generous salary
through November regardless of the fate of his candidacy), and outright
ownership of the media to hand victory to his pawns. Understand that
Democrats including a potential President Hillary Clinton would be
hopelessly dependent on him for future funding, as their independent
fundraising capacities atrophy once he starts paying the bills.
Steve
Bannon gave us an ‘emperor’s new clothes’ moment yesterday. We are on
the road to an outright sale of a political party to a plutocrat and
nobody else is willing to acknowledge it.