Steve Bannon is melting down over a brutal Republican setback he says exposes a party sleepwalking toward disaster.
The former White House chief strategist tore into GOP leadership on his War Room podcast Wednesday after Virginia voters approved a sweeping redistricting overhaul that could hand Democrats a dominant edge in 10 of the state’s 11 congressional districts.
Virginia voters on Tuesday backed a plan to redraw congressional lines, bypassing the state’s bipartisan redistricting commission. The new measure eliminates a map put in place six years ago, and effectively wipes out four Republican-held seats. The shift leaves Democrats with a commanding advantage heading into the November midterms.
Bannon pinned the loss squarely on what he called the GOP’s “consultant lobbyist crap,” accusing party insiders of running a timid, losing strategy in a race he insisted “was so fricking winnable.”
“And of course the consultants say ‘Sshh, you don’t want to bring up Trump because we might upset Democrats,’” Bannon said, mocking figures he claims are steering candidates away from the controversial president. That approach, he argued, has left voters with “nothing for people to work for” and all but guarantees Republicans will lose the Senate.
He then rattled off a list of Republican party members he blamed for the debacle—including Sen. John Cornyn, Sen. Lindsey Graham, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune—calling them a “complete total group of scumbags” unwilling to do the grunt work needed to win.
“Do you think they’re going to go door to door in the hot, sweltering summer to make voter contact for that?” Bannon scoffed.
The longtime Trump ally didn’t stop there. He said he was “disgusted and revolted” by what he described as a consultant class “stealing money,” warning donors to think twice before opening their wallets unless the system becomes fully transparent.
The damage, he argued, won’t be quick to fix.
“It’ll take us a decade to dig out of this,” Bannon said, predicting years of grassroots rebuilding just to regain lost ground.
Even as he unloaded on his own party, Bannon stopped short of pinning the loss on President Donald Trump, insisting he “can’t hold him culpable.” But he warned that if the trend continues, Republicans face a bleak future.
Trump, 79, struck a similar note, sidestepping any responsibility for the crushing defeat. Instead, he reached for one of his favorite excuses, declaring the election “RIGGED” in a scathing Truth Social post on Wednesday.
He pointed to what he called a “massive Mail-In Ballot Drop” that he claimed flipped the outcome late in the count. He compared it to the 2020 election—continuing to push debunked claims and labeled the result “another Crooked Victory.”
The Virginia result is the latest in a string of setbacks rattling Republicans ahead of the midterms. The party is still reeling from March losses in two historically red Florida districts, where even overwhelming GOP turnout and Trump-backed candidates failed to secure wins.
Now, Florida is gearing up for another high-stakes showdown, with a special legislative session on congressional redistricting set to begin April 28—opening the door to yet another volatile battle over district lines.
