Steve Bannon is out of jail and spreading lies online

Steve Bannon got out of federal prison around 3 a.m. Tuesday. Seven hours later he was live on his War room podcast to “flood the zone with shit” exactly one week before the presidential election.

Flooding the zone with crap is Bannon’s own often quoted description of his media strategy: to throw so many lies or half-truths into the stratosphere that it becomes impossible to draw a line between fact and fiction.

“I’m more energized and more focused than I’ve ever been in my entire life,” Bannon said War room stream on the Rumble, which drew nearly 100,000 live viewers at one point. “The four months in federal prison not only broke me, it empowered me.”

Bannon, 70, a longtime ally of and former strategist for Donald Trump, spent four months in a low-security federal prison in Danbury, Conn., for contempt after he defied a subpoena in the congressional investigation into the Jan. 6 Capitol riot .

Bannon has cast himself as a martyr – someone who, like the January 6 rioters and like Trump, is being unfairly persecuted by the same tyrannical forces they are up against next week in the election.

On air Tuesday, and later at a press conference, Bannon repeatedly suggested that former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi banish him to prison because she wanted to limit his influence.

“If you are not prepared to be sent to federal prison as a political prisoner, then you are not worthy to be in this movement,” he said. “You have to understand, they want to put you in jail and they want to put you in jail. If you can’t accept that, then you don’t know what they represent.”

Bannon’s return to the public sphere also means the return of a massive mouthpiece to amplify the election fraud conspiracies already raging online. And Bannon went straight to telling his viewers that the Democrats were planning to steal the 2024 election.

“Every day after November 5th becomes Stalingrad,” Bannon said. “If they can’t take it from Trump, if they can’t cancel it right there, they will at least delegitimize his victory.”

“They will go to any lengths to stop President Trump,” Bannon continued. “That’s the reality.”

ONE 2023 Brookings study on disinformation in political podcasts identified Bannon’s War room as the greatest purveyor of untruths and unsubstantiated claims; about a fifth of all episodes assessed by researchers were determined to have claims flagged as false by debunkers such as Snopes and Politifact.

“If the Pelosi apparatus wins, you better be prepared to go to federal prison,” Bannon said. “Because these people have no qualms about weaponizing the justice system, weaponizing the justice system against Americans who hold different political views.”

His fans seem happy that he is back. “God bless you Steve’ Get out the Bannon sledgehammer and start smashing the traitors,” one viewer wrote during Tuesday’s live stream.

“Welcome back Steve, we need our leader,” wrote another. “Give us our marching orders and let’s get this done.”