Steve Bannon was accused of giving a Nazi salute during his appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington on Thursday, prompting French far-right National Rally party leader Jordan Bardella to cancel his speech at the event scheduled for Friday.
Steve Bannon, media personality and political strategist, speaks at the Conservative Political ... [+]
Bardella said in a statement Friday he wouldn’t speak at the conference because “one of the speakers allowed himself, as a provocation, to make a gesture referring to Nazi ideology,” without mentioning Bannon by name.
Bannon made the gesture as he told the CPAC attendees to “Fight! Fight! Fight!” and the crowd cheered; he later told the Daily Mail it “was a wave to the crowd,” blaming the “left-wing media” for fueling comparisons of his gesture to the “Sieg Heil” salute used as a greeting in Nazi Germany.
Bannon blasted Bardella as “a boy, not a man” after he cancelled his speech.
The Anti-Defamation League condemned Bannon for the gesture, accusing him of a “long and disturbing history of stoking antisemitism and hate” in a post on X (Bannon’s ex-wife accused him in 2007 of making antisemitic statements in court papers following their divorce, comments he denied making through a spokesperson at the time).
Elon Musk also drew fierce criticism from world leaders and Democrats after giving a similar salute during a speech last month at an inauguration event.
Bannon also said during his CPAC speech that he wants the J6 prison choir, which is made up of men who were imprisoned for their roles in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, to perform at the Kennedy Center. President Donald Trump’s hand-picked board at the Kennedy Center recently appointed him chairman as Trump has expressed plans to make significant changes to rid the federally funded performing arts center of any traces of “woke culture.” Bannon said he spoke to Kennedy Center Interim Director Ric Grenell about the choir performing at the center.
Musk responded to the criticism of his gesture by accusing his critics of “dirty tricks,” writing on X that “The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired.” Bannon has repeatedly attacked Musk in recent months as Musk has developed a close advisory relationship with Trump and is leading his Department of Government Efficiency tasked with carrying out cost-cutting measures across the federal government. Earlier this month, Bannon called Musk, who is from South Africa, a “parasitic illegal immigrant,” though he has also expressed support for his work at the DOGE, telling the Daily Mail this week “Elon’s doing some great stuff, but I totally oppose him being an oligarch and a transhumanist . . . DOGE is on fire.” Bannon, a former advisor to Trump during his first term and former chair of the right-wing outlet Breitbart News, served four months in prison last year on contempt of Congress charges after refusing to comply with a House Jan. 6 Committee subpoena.
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