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Bannon Tried To Take Down Alleged Whistleblower Before Anyone Knew Who He Was

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Unsurprisingly, a new report has emerged indicating the swamp just might be to blame for another of President Donald Trump’s political ills.

Worse still, it seems the current ill — the Ukraine scandal that has led to the Democrats’ impeachment push — could have been avoided had members of the administration been on the same page about keeping long-time D.C. insiders as far as humanly possible from the president’s inner circle.

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon told Vice News that he and others had been working years ago to see alleged Ukraine whistleblower Eric Ciaramella ousted from the White House.

Suspicious of Ciaramella’s loyalties early in 2017, Bannon and his allies were, however, prevented by then-National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster from possibly heading off the trouble of another mass media spectacle and manufactured political hit on the president, according to the Washington Examiner.

Not referring to Ciaramella by name, Bannon told Vice News last week that he was, in fact, part of an effort to see “the individual that was named” removed from the role of Ukraine director on the National Security Council.

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“I don’t think the individual naming of the whistleblower is important,” Bannon said, eventually citing a report he says tied him “to the efforts to get the gentleman who was named out of the National Security Council.”

“Absolutely true,” he said. “When I was in the White House, there was a number of people on the National Security Council [who wanted Ciaramella removed].

“The named individual eventually got let go, I believe, because people were suspicious — and not me, but other people around him — were suspicious about his leaking, and that’s why he was let go.”



According to the Examiner, Ciaramella — who has not denied widespread reports he is the one who blew the whistle on alleged impropriety in a July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — was an NSC “holdover” from the Obama administration.

A lifelong CIA analyst, Ciaramella remained on the NSC for some time under Trump and was suspected by administration officials and right-wing bloggers of the alleged “high-level” leaking of the president’s communications with Australia and Mexico in 2017.

Despite these suspicions, the Examiner reported, McMaster took a liking to Ciaramella, making him a personal assistant and shielding him — and others — from Trump’s attempts to have all Obama holdovers removed from the NSC.

“[McMaster] was very angry that Bannon and various other people were saying, ‘We don’t want holdovers,'” an anonymous White House official told the outlet. “And when he had his first all-hands meeting, he said, ‘There is no such thing as holdovers.'”

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And, as with everyone in the swamp, even when Ciaramella was removed, the analyst managed to secure another high-ranking position in the intelligence community.

Do you think Trump still needs to drain the swamp?

For some strange reason, careers never seem to die in D.C.

Cogs are never entirely removed from the machine when they are deemed to be slowing up the political process or failing to serve their designated purpose.

The cogs are simply recycled to other parts of the machine.

Elsewhere, they continue to slow up the democratic process in other ways, always given another chance to serve themselves instead of the people.

And with a machine that works like that, it certainly isn’t hard to wonder why so many Americans are investing in the “deep state” conspiracy.

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Andrew J. Sciascia was the supervising editor of features at The Western Journal. Having joined up as a regular contributor of opinion in 2018, he went on to cover the Barrett confirmation and 2020 presidential election for the outlet, regularly co-hosting its video podcast, "WJ Live," as well.
Andrew J. Sciascia was the supervising editor of features at The Western Journal and regularly co-hosted the outlet's video podcast, "WJ Live."

Sciascia first joined up with The Western Journal as a regular contributor of opinion in 2018, before graduating with a degree in criminal justice and political science from the University of Massachusetts Lowell, where he served as editor-in-chief of the student newspaper and worked briefly as a political operative with the Massachusetts Republican Party.

He covered the Barrett confirmation and 2020 presidential election for The Western Journal. His work has also appeared in The Daily Caller.




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