'No way back' for Steve Bannon, says White House day after ex-chief strategist apologised for comments on Trump administration

Washington: The White House on Monday said there was “no way back” for Steve Bannon, a day after the former chief strategist apologised for his comments on US president Donald Trump and the First Family. [caption id=“attachment_3948049” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Steve Bannon. AP[/caption] “I don’t believe there’s any way back for Bannon at this point. It is very obvious that Bannon worked with Wolff in this particular book,” White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley told reporters aboard Air Force One. He was responding to a question on the statement by Bannon a day earlier in which he had apologised for his critical remarks in the book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff.

In a statement, Trump said Bannon has nothing to do with his presidency and has “lost his mind”.

“The president has been very clear on his thoughts; issued a four-paragraph statement about Bannon. Zero ambiguity in those statements. It was obvious that the book was false and fake,” Gidley said. “The president pointed to that and also pointed that Bannon is not in it for the country but instead in it for himself. And those statements still stand,” he said. In the book, Bannon described Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner’s meeting with a Russian lawyer as “treasonous” and “unpatriotic”. “When you go after somebody’s family, in the manner in which he did — two of the president’s children who are serving this nation, sacrificing in their service — it is repugnant, it is grotesque. “And I challenge anybody to go and talk about someone else’s family and see if that person doesn’t come back and come back hard,” Gidley said.