Donald Trump: Steve Bannon backs away from explosive treason comments about US President's son
Updated
Donald Trump's former adviser Steve Bannon says he regrets some reporting in a scathing new book that quotes him accusing the President's son of treason.
Key points:
- Steve Bannon says treason comments were directed at Paul Manafort
- Mr Bannon says he regrets not correcting record earlier
- Donald Trump says the book is a work of fiction
Mr Bannon infuriated Mr Trump with comments in the book Fire and Fury describing a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower in New York between Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort and a Russian lawyer where dirt on Hillary Clinton was promised as "treasonous" and "unpatriotic".
Mr Bannon said his description was aimed at former Trump campaign chairman Mr Manafort, who also attended the meeting, and not Mr Trump's son.
In a statement released to the US media, Mr Bannon described Mr Trump Jr as a patriot and a good man.
"I regret that my delay in responding to the inaccurate reporting regarding Don Jr has diverted attention from the President's historical accomplishments in the first year of his presidency," according to the statement.
Mr Bannon said his support for Mr Trump and his agenda is "unwavering".
The President's lawyers had accused Mr Bannon of defaming Mr Trump and his family and had threatened to sue him.
Hours before Mr Bannon's statement came out, administration officials used appearances on the Sunday news shows to rally behind Mr Trump and try to undermine Michael Wolff's book, which portrays the 45th President as a leader who does not understand the weight of his office and whose competence is questioned by aides.
Chief policy adviser Stephen Miller, in a combative appearance on CNN, described the book as "nothing but a pile of trash through and through".
He also criticised Mr Bannon, who is quoted at length by Wolff, saying it was "tragic and unfortunate" that Mr Bannon "would make these grotesque comments so out of touch with reality and obviously so vindictive".
CIA director Mike Pompeo said Mr Trump was "completely fit" to lead the country.
"These [comments] are from people who just have not accepted the fact that President Trump is the United States president and I'm sorry for them in that," Mr Pompeo told Fox News Sunday.
He gives Trump his regular intelligence briefings.
Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said she was at the White House once a week, and "no-one questions the stability of the President".
"I'm always amazed at the lengths people will go to, to lie for money and for power. This is like taking it to a whole new low," she told ABC America's This Week.
He pressed the case again on Sunday as he prepared to depart Camp David for the White House.
"I've had to put up with the Fake News from the first day I announced that I would be running for President," he tweeted.
"Now I have to put up with a Fake Book, written by a totally discredited author."
Wolff's book draws a derogatory portrait of Mr Trump as an undisciplined man-child who did not actually want to win the White House and who spends his evenings eating cheeseburgers in bed, watching television and talking on the telephone to old friends.
Chatter about Mr Trump's mental fitness for office has intensified in recent months on cable news shows and among Democrats in Congress.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders this past week called such suggestions "disgraceful and laughable".
"If he was unfit, he probably wouldn't be sitting there and wouldn't have defeated the most qualified group of candidates the Republican Party has ever seen," she said, calling him "an incredibly strong and good leader".
Mr Trump and some aides have attacked Wolff's credibility, pointing to the fact that the book includes a number of factual errors and denying that the author had as much access as he claimed.
"He said he interviewed me for three hours in the White House. It didn't exist, OK? It's in his imagination," Mr Trump said.
Topics: donald-trump, world-politics, government-and-politics, books-literature, united-states
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