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Right-wing populist Steve Bannon has called for violence against US health adviser Anthony Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray. In an issue of his War Room: Pandemic podcast, he talked about how both of them could be beheaded.
The YouTube video platform later removed the episode. Twitter removed the Bannons Podcasts account, which had around 60,000 followers. On Facebook, Bannon’s post was online for about 10 hours and was viewed nearly 200,000 times, CNN reported. Finally, Facebook also removed the post.
Bannon’s podcast was no longer available on Spotify’s audio platform on Thursday. Apple Podcast continues to offer the episode on Friday morning German time.
Medieval fantasies of violence
Bannon said verbatim on the podcast: “I would impale their heads and put them on the sides of the White House. As a warning to federal bureaucrats, ‘Either you do it or you will too!” Bannon also recalled the days of the American independence movement: “The revolution was not an open-air party, it was a civil war.
Bannon also said that Trump won the election, although the final result is pending in several US states. With his statements, Bannon violates several rules of the platforms. Among other things, they prohibit posts that falsely cast doubt on the integrity of the elections or call for violence.
Bannon’s podcast was previously promoted by supporters of the anti-Semitic QAnon movement on right-wing forums.
Twitter, Facebook, and other platforms are currently fighting to prevent the spread of disinformation about the US elections. Under the hashtag “STOPTHESTEAL,” Trump supporters are calling for the counting of the remaining mail-order votes to be stopped, and they speak of voter fraud. However, according to the conclusions of the head of the OSCE in Germany, there is no problem with voting by mail.
Steve Bannon was appointed chief White House strategist in 2016 and was initially the key adviser to the Trump administration. Only a year later it was announced that he would be leaving this position. Since then, Bannon has repeatedly drawn attention through right-wing populist initiatives and statements. In 2020 he was arrested on suspicion of money laundering and donation fraud. Bannon denied the allegations.
