Former White House strategist Steve Bannon was expected to be peppered with questions on the Trump campaign’s links to Russia in closed testimony to the House Intelligence Committee Tuesday. Bannon, who has been mostly quiet since the release of an incendiary book about President Donald Trump year last week in which he figured prominently as a source, was seen arriving in Congress for the hearing early Tuesday. Bannon, 64, was a powerful figure in the Trump election campaign and the White House in the early months of Trump’s presidency, pushing a hard-line nationalism aimed at shaking up US domestic and foreign policy. Last week he was forced to step down from Breitbart News, which he had helped make a powerful conservative force, and he lost the support of the Mercer family, wealthy conservative power brokers. Underscoring the break, Trump said Bannon had “lost his mind” and branded him “Sloppy Steve” via Twitter.

Source: Punch January 16, 2018 14:37 UTC