Steve Bannon: If Republicans Don’t Put Differences Aside, 2018 Won’t Be Pretty

Breitbart News Executive Chairman and former White House Chief Strategist Stephen K. Bannon warned Thursday that if Republicans cannot put their differences aside, the 2018 elections are “not going to be pretty.”

“If we don’t put this coalition together, if we can’t look at each other and say, ‘Hey, I understand we disagree on a lot of stuff’ …’18 is not going to be pretty,” he said at a New Hampshire fundraiser.

But, he said, if Republicans can come together and the president sticks to the plan, they can win in 2020 with 400 electoral votes.

“We could pick up three to five seats in the Senate, right? And we can hold the House. And we can set the predicate for 400 electoral votes in 2020. That’s all in front of us,” he said.

The “one thing that has to happen” is the Senate needs to get together and work double time to pass bills, he said, noting that since he’s raised pressure on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), he’s been working harder.

“Ever since we started putting the whip hand to him, I notice they’re working six days a week. I noticed they passed a budget. I noticed they said they were going to cancel Thanksgiving if they got to work through it, right? I notice they’re coming out with a tax plan tomorrow … I notice he’s now really starting to push federal judges through there,” he said.

“He’s working in double time. The only reason he’s now working double time is you got to keep the hammer on these folks everyday. If you don’t, they’re going to do what they want to do in the timeframe they want to do it,” he said. “And if we allow that to happen … just a tax cut is not going to save us.”

Bannon warned Republicans not to underestimate the Democrats, pointing to their victories in Virginia on Tuesday.

“I don’t like whining, and there’s a lot of whining going on,” he said. “The focus has got to be here on winning. We know how to win. We just have to put our mind to it, have to put our differences aside and understand that you’re not going to get everything. I didn’t get everything. None of us are, but we’ll get enough.

“And it’s good enough for the next day, because if you want to take this country back, it’s not just ’18 and ’20, it’s going to be … ’22, and ’24, just on and on and on,” he said.