Bannon fired: You can't have somebody like that within the White House, says Rep. Peter King
Rep. Peter King said Sunday he is pleased to see Steve Bannon leave his job as White House strategist in President Donald Trump’s administration.
“I have nothing personal against Steve Bannon, but the way he was operating within the White House was undermining the president by giving that interview where he was undercutting the president’s policy on North Korea,” King, R-N.Y., told Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures,” regarding the recently-fired Bannon’s comments that appeared in The American Prospect.
Bannon, who departed the White House on Friday, told the liberal news magazine in an on-the-record interview that there is “no military solution” to North Korea’s nuclear provocations, which contradicted what Trump said on Aug. 8.
"North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States," the president said while at a meeting about America’s opioid crisis at his New Jersey golf club. "They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen. He [Kim Jong Un] has been very threatening beyond a normal state. They will be met with fire, fury and, frankly, power the likes of which this world has never seen before."
The ex-White House strategist and the former executive chairman at Breitbart News also ridiculed colleagues in the interview, including Gary Cohn, Trump’s top economic adviser and director of the National Economic Council, over trade policy.
“You can’t have somebody like that within the White House,” King said. “Let Gen. Kelly do his job. I think John Kelly is going to be the hero of this administration.”
Additionally, King himself commented on the latest news regarding North Korea, specifically the joint U.S.-South Korean 10-day military exercises which are set to begin Monday.
“We have to go ahead with those maneuvers, it’s absolutely essential. South Korea and the United States have to show North Korea how serious we are,” King said adding, “as of now, the president’s policy is working … so I’m saying let the president, Gen. [James] Mattis, Gen. [H.R.] McMaster and Secretary [of State Rex] TIllerson do their jobs and have those maneuvers go ahead.”