Steve Bannon’s sit-down with CBS’ “60 Minutes” has yielded quite the treasure trove of insider goodies.
Take for instance the bit about hapless New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
Christie’s groveling to earn a place in the Trump administration is legendary, at this point. He endured fat jokes from his master, Trump. He was seen making McDonald’s runs, like a lowly intern, rather than the governor of an American state, and was basically treated with nothing short of dismissive disrespect.
The early belief is that he would be named vice president, or at least attorney general.
None of that happened. Not even close.
Bannon explains the Christie snub by saying, basically, either you show unwavering loyalty to Trump, or you’re out.
Christie, for all the abuse he endured, the fast food runs and assorted humiliations, failed to have Trump’s back in the now-infamous “Access Hollywood” tape incident, where Trump’s lecherous, immoral nature was revealed.
“Christie, because of Billy Bush weekend, was not looked at for a cabinet position,” Bannon said in an interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes” that aired Thursday.
Host Charlie Rose responded: “He wasn’t there for you on Billy Bush weekend, therefore he doesn’t get a cabinet position.”
Bannon continued, “I told him the plane leaves at 11-o-clock in the morning. If you make the plane, you make the team. He didn’t make the plane.”
Christie, like other Republicans leaders attempting to appear morally opposed, said that he could not support Trump’s statements in the tape.
Now, in a normal society, or one where moral and appropriate behavior is appreciated, at least in public, Christie and others who spoke out against Trump’s language and attitude in those tapes would have been applauded.
Nope. In the new age of Trumpism, standing on things like morality and decency is reason for scorn and derision.
This is not to make Christie out to be an icon of virtue. He’s not, and he knew what Trump was when he volunteered to be his doormat.
Bannon’s revelations from inside the administration are as much self-serving as any who have attached themselves to Trump’s traveling freak show, and I have to believe that what we’re seeing now is only the tip of the iceberg.
“[New Jersey Gov.] Christie, because of Billy Bush weekend, was not looked at for a Cabinet position,” Steve Bannon tells @CharlieRose pic.twitter.com/zgKbpOfAiJ
— CBS News (@CBSNews) September 8, 2017
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