“Trump looms large” in Pennsylvania Republicans’ “super MAGA” primaries as the candidates focus on dangerous conspiracy theories and Trumpian litmus tests.
PENNSYLVANIA — As the Pennsylvania Republican primaries ramp up, Steve Bannon — Donald Trump’s former chief political strategist — is making it clear that Republican candidates need to put loyalty to Donald Trump and the Big Lie above everything else. In an interview with NBC News, Bannon called challenging the results of the 2020 election a “litmus test” for Republicans, saying “there will not be a Republican that wins a primary for 2022 — not one — that doesn’t take the pledge to get to the bottom of Nov. 3.”
As the Associated Press reported, “Trump looms large in Pennsylvania’s GOP primaries in 2022” and Lou Barletta, Doug Mastriano, and Sean Parnell are taking Bannon’s advice to heart in order to highlight their Trumpian bona fides. Instead of addressing the issues facing everyday Pennsylvanians, the Republican candidates are focused on proving their loyalty to Donald Trump, promoting dangerous conspiracy theories, and obsessing over Trumpian litmus tests — and in the GOP senate primary the candidates are already attacking each other over MAGA loyalty tests.
NBC News: Bannon has his MAGA megaphone back. GOP candidates know it.
By Henry Gomez, 05/30/21
Steve Bannon has a new MAGA megaphone, and Republicans eager to shine in a party still tethered to former President Donald Trump know it.
Bannon, the former Breitbart News executive and one of the architects of Trump’s Make America Great Again movement, has increasingly leveraged his “War Room: Pandemic” podcast into a kind of proxy primary. Ambitious Republicans are flocking there for the chance to demonstrate loyalty to Bannon’s former boss and pitch themselves to Trump’s voters — and, more indirectly, to Trump himself.
With Fox News appearing to lose favor among some of Trump’s most diehard fans, “War Room” appears to be gaining steam as a safe space for the far right. It’s routinely among the most popular podcasts on Apple’s platform and streams live twice each weekday and once every Saturday through the Real America’s Voice network.
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In an interview with NBC News, Bannon said candidates who appear will be pushed first and foremost on what he called “a litmus test” for the GOP: challenging the outcome of the 2020 election.
“So Nov. 3 is not going to go away,” Bannon said. “There will not be a Republican that wins a primary for 2022 — not one — that doesn’t take the pledge to get to the bottom of Nov. 3.”
YouTube has banned Bannon’s podcast channel, citing concerns about the spread of false claims about election fraud. Nevertheless, Bannon has had little trouble booking guests, from MAGA celebrities such as the MyPillow creator to veteran lawmakers and candidates. They’re often reaching out to him, Bannon said, aware if they want to reach the Trump base, it’s a must-visit.
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For some, “War Room” is a place to speak freely in a way they might not elsewhere. Sean Parnell, a Senate candidate in Pennsylvania, told local reporters at his campaign launch that he had no interest in re-litigating the 2020 election. On Bannon’s show less than two weeks later, Parnell said he would welcome an audit of election results in his state — a contradiction first noted by Pittsburgh’s NPR affiliate, WESA. Jeff Bartos, another Senate hopeful in Pennsylvania, has used “War Room” to call Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, who is Muslim, “Hamas’ spokesperson in the United States.”
When former Rep. Lou Barletta appeared on the show, days away from launching his gubernatorial bid in Pennsylvania, Bannon hailed him as “a legendary figure in the Trump movement” for being one of the former president’s earliest supporters in Congress. The admiration is mutual.
“Steve Bannon reaches an enormous audience of Americans who value the policies of President Trump and don’t like the country’s current direction,” Barletta spokesperson Kristen Bennett said. “Steve comes at current events from a populist point of view, is intelligent and entertaining, and resonates with a wide segment of the electorate.”
AP: Trump looms large in Pennsylvania’s GOP primaries in 2022
By Marc Levy, 05/29/21
With Pennsylvania’s wide-open races for governor and U.S. Senate taking shape, Republican candidates with strong ties to Donald Trump are running and considered strong contenders for the party’s nominations — a powerful sign of the former president’s enduring popularity within the GOP.
Within a few days of each other, Sean Parnell entered the race for U.S. Senate and Lou Barletta entered the race for governor. Trump had urged both men to run in prior bids for public office.
Barletta explained the calculus for running under the Republican banner.
“Donald Trump is still the leader of the Republican Party and anybody who believes otherwise, they don’t know what they’re talking about, and especially in Pennsylvania,” Barletta told former Trump adviser Steve Bannon on Bannon’s podcast, “War Room.”
Parnell and Barletta have ties to Trump that go deep.
Barletta was co-chair of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign in Pennsylvania and a loyal ally on Capitol Hill when he was in Congress. He was Trump’s endorsed candidate for U.S. Senate in 2018 and watched the Super Bowl that year with the then-president. He was one of Trump’s hand-picked presidential electors in Pennsylvania last year and has hired veterans of Trump’s campaign to run his own.
Parnell, a regular guest on Fox News programs, got numerous Twitter and campaign stump shoutouts from Trump to boost his unsuccessful bid for U.S. House last year and landed a coveted speaking slot at the Republican National Convention.
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Republican voters seem unaffected in their support for Trump-backed candidates, said Jim Lee, president of Susquehanna Polling and Research, whose polls include voter surveys and polls for Republican candidates.
But Lee also described opposition among independent voters to Trump-aligned candidates as a “brick wall with a couple layers of thickness to it.”
“What’s an asset in a primary could potentially be a liability in the fall,” Lee said.
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