OPINION:
“Steve Bannon Is No Longer a Free Man,” gloated one left-wing website.
“Steve Bannon Swaps His Podcast Studio for a Prison Cell,” another gleefully reported.
July 1 was, by any measure, a dark and grave moment in American political history — one concealed only by its absurdity.
Former President Donald Trump’s former senior White House adviser and key architect of the Trump 2016 campaign reported to a federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut, to begin serving a sentence borne entirely of naked partisan politics.
“Contempt of Congress” is the official crime, as if 90% of Americans at any given moment would not be convicted of the same offense if charged by crazy prosecutors. But the “90%” figure does not actually do justice to the true level of contempt Americans have for Congress these days. That outstanding 10% who do not currently register contempt for Congress in polls today will have contempt for Congress as soon as the other party takes over again.
So, actually, it is more like 100% of Americans today would be found guilty if charged with contempt of Congress.
In other words, Steve Bannon is all of us.
***
But the previously unthinkable scene of Mr. Bannon in Danbury — like the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Birmingham or Nelson Mandela on Robben Island — was not the really dark and grave moment this past week. That scene unfolded on the same morning 300 miles to the south outside the Supreme Court, which had just issued a widely predicted and reasonable 6-3 opinion that presidents obviously have immunity from prosecution for their official acts as president.
Otherwise, former President George W. Bush would be charged for cooking the evidence to get us into the Iraq War, former President Barack Obama would be charged with murder for droning a 16-year-old American citizen in Yemen, and President Biden would likely be executed for an airstrike on 10 civilians in Afghanistan, including seven children and three charity workers feeding the hungry.
The only extraordinary thing about the Supreme Court ruling was that three justices had made it to the high court despite being so tangled in the kelp of their own stupidity and so deeply partisan that they signed their names to a dissent that would obliterate an entire branch of government.
It was, in short, an attempted judicial insurrection — a black-robed coup against the presidency and the very Constitution they were sworn to uphold.
Though she was heralded as a “wise Latina” when Democrats put Justice Sonia Sotomayor on the Supreme Court, she quickly established herself as the dumbest person on the bench. With her unhinged dissent last week, she also established herself as an unstable lunatic — a dangerous combination when mixed with stupidity and power.
She actually used the ink and paper of her office in the Supreme Court to instruct the current president and all future presidents that they are now free to use “the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival.” Never mind that such an act would never fall into the category of an “official act,” Justice Sotomayor just wants Mr. Biden and future presidents to know that they are free to assassinate their political rivals. (Hint, hint. Wink, wink.)
Nothing lowers the temperature of an already broiling political debate like a black-robed justice for life encouraging political assassinations from the highest bench in the land.
***
Back in Danbury, Mr. Bannon stood before cameras and declared that he was “proud to go to prison.”
Dressed in double black shirts outside the federal prison, Mr. Bannon left at home the quiver of four to seven pens he usually keeps holstered in the placket of his outer-buttoned shirt. He offered himself as a martyr, standing up to the tyranny of a justice system twisted and weaponized by Mr. Biden to punish his political enemies.
“But martyrs die and I’m far from dead, baby,” Mr. Bannon bragged with a devious smile.
At that moment, Mr. Biden must have kicked himself for not sending in SEAL Team 6.
Mr. Bannon was joined by his own SEAL team, including the fearless Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a Catholic priest, his daughter and Erik Prince, America’s most famous mercenary and an actual Navy SEAL. The whole scene had the feel of a band of righteous rebels locked in guerrilla warfare against an unblinking tyrant in the jungles of Southeast Asia, where Mr. Bannon would be starved in a bamboo jail cell.
The air was heavy with revenge. Lost on no one is the fact that Mr. Bannon is scheduled to be released from prison just days before the November election in which Mr. Trump is poised to win.
Mr. Prince, the mercenary, stood by Mr. Bannon, wearing a sand khaki tactical shirt.
“We turn my friend Steve Bannon over to the guards at the prison here. We will be here in four months to collect him in good health,” he said, before adding a stark warning.
“We expect that they take good care of him or there will be accountability for that as well.”
Then the priest stepped forward to offer a prayer for him, and Mr. Bannon replied: “Father, don’t pray for me. Pray for our enemies.”
• Charles Hurt is the opinion editor at The Washington Times.
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