Former Trump aide Steve Bannon tells followers to ‘take down the illegitimate Biden regime’

Former White House chief strategist’s latest rant against Biden comes as Trump-backed candidates flounder

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon is back and vowing on a livestream to “take down” the Biden administration.

The longtime Trump loyalist spoke as he was heading into a Washington DC courthouse for the latest hearing in his ongoing battle against a contempt of Congress charge filed by the Justice Department after Mr Bannon refused to cooperate with a congressional subpoena from the January 6 committee.

Mr Bannon claimed in the video that he was working “every day of the week” to “take down the illegitimate Biden regime and stop it in its tracks”.

“We’re doing a pretty good job,” he alleged.

The former White House aide also crowed about an upcoming “populist, nationalist uprising at the polls to take down the Democratic Party”, which he said was his main goal.

Alongside Mr Trump, Mr Bannon vowed to “destroy the Democratic Party as a national political institution root and branch”.

The live stream was first reported by Crooks and Liars, a progressive news site.

Mr Bannon is the first Trump administration official to face an actual criminal contempt charge over his refusal to follow a legal congressional order from the January 6 committee. The House has voted to hold others including former chief of staff Mark Meadows in contempt as well, but the Justice Department has yet to file those charges and is not bound by the House’s decision to do so.

The Justice Department has, however, indicated that it plans to hold everyone possible to account for the bloody attack on Congress that occurred as Donald Trump’s supporters were seeking to prevent the transfer of power to Joe Biden. The January 6 panel’s investigation continues as well despite Mr Bannon and others’ refusal to cooperate, citing the cooperation of numerous other witnesses. In recent days the committee has even taken the extreme step of indicating in a court filing that it is gathering evidence supporting the conclusion that Mr Trump and others were part of a criminal conspiracy against the United States.

Mr Trump and his allies have roundly denounced both the Justice Department and the US House for their efforts to investigate the siege of the Capitol, which they have explained away as a political effort to smear the former president and his supporters.

If found guilty of contempt of Congress, Mr Bannon could receive up to a maximum of one year in jail and a fine of up to $100,000 for each of the two charges he’s facing.