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Steve Bannon says antifa is just as bad as neo-Nazis

Steve Bannon sat down for an interview with the New York Times on the one-year anniversary of President Donald Trump’s election, a day Bannon calls “MAGA Day.”

“We’ll celebrate it like Bastille Day going forward,” Bannon said.

In a wide-ranging interview, Bannon touched on the Republican establishment, white nationalism, and gave his take on the Russia investigation.

Here are the highlights:

The Republican tax plan isn’t “reform”

The Republican tax plan has come under fire for not benefiting the middle class, and slashing taxes for corporations and the very wealthy. Bannon, who’s called for increasing taxes on people who earn more than $5 million, slammed the Republican proposal as not populist enough.

“We have yet to see what they’re going to do on taxes, but this is not fundamental tax reform. It’s going to be a tax cut with some tax reform, but it’s certainly not what people envisioned at first, and I hold that to Mitch McConnell,” Bannon said.

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Mitch McConnell’s gotta go

Bannon described the current political moment as a repudiation of establishment politics, a “revolt of working-class people of both parties.”

Part of that, he says, is ousting Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

“Do you think Mitch McConnell will be majority leader at this time next year?” asked the Times’ Jeremy Peters.

“I absolutely do not think he will be majority leader,” Bannon said.

Trumpism’s appeal to white nationalism is fake news

There’s no question that Trump has appeal with far-right white nationalists. His name was chanted by neo-Nazis in Charlottesville. And Bannon too was one degree of separation from self-proclaimed white nationalists while his protege, Milo Yiannopoulos, was at Breitbart.

But to Bannon, the allegations of racism and white nationalism are all media bluster.

“Ethnonationalism is ridiculous. Right, it’s absurd. The guys there are quite frankly creatures of the mainstream media and the left media,” Bannon said. “Nobody takes them seriously.”

READ: Trump started a culture war. Democrats don’t know how to fight back

Antifa and neo-Nazis are equally bad

As for Charlottesville, Bannon said the president handled it perfectly.

“What president Trump was talking about — ‘there are very fine people on both sides’ — is that the people that were there for their legitimate First Amendment rights to say, ‘Hey, I support the statue of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson,’ and, ‘Hey, I think it’s racist and it should come down.’”

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Antifa and neo-Nazis, to Bannon, are equally bad.

“When those Neo-Nazis and those neo-Confederates — when guys show up in helmets and with baseball bats. And when Antifa shows up — Antifa being just as bad — when they show up, the cops should put them in the paddy wagon and take them downtown. Cause all they’re just there to cause chaos, on both sides,” Bannon said.

And of Trump: “This guy is the least racist guy I’ve ever met.”

Mueller’s Russia investigation should have “parameters”

To Bannon, the Russia investigation is all about nullifying Trump’s election win.

“I think the collusion thing — and I’ve said from day one — is a joke,” Bannon said. “We had a tough time colluding between the Trump campaign, and Pennsylvania, and the RNC.”

“I do believe that Bob Mueller’s investigation should have some parameters on it,” he added. “I do not believe that that is the purview of what the special prosecutor has set up.”