During an interview with Bannon on One America News’ The Matt Gaetz Show, former congressman Matt Gaetz asked Bannon about his recent criticism of Fox News host Mark Levin and the network in general.
“You have said that Fox News may be acting at the behest of a foreign government,” noted Gaetz. “I don’t suppose you’re suggesting it’s Australia, so for my audience, will you just connect the dots how you believe Fox News is acting at the behest of a foreign government?”
Bannon responded, “Fox News has just been a cheerleader – just like they were cheerleaders for the Iraq War and for the extension in Afghanistan. It’s the Iraq War playbook. They had Ukraine, but as you know, through your good offices and others, we shut down the Ukraine nonsense, at least to the degree it could be shut down.”
“And now they are very focused on Israel and an Israel-Persian or Israel-Iran war,” he continued:
It’s at the behest of the Israel First crowd, and [Mark] Levin’s the worst but by far not the only at Fox News. They never put on a counter argument. I just think there ought to be an investigation. Are they dealing directly with foreign intelligence services? Are they dealing with foreign political parties? Where are they getting their talking points? How much communication– I mean, the American people should be able to know this because it’s so over the top, and any time you mention any criticism they lose it, like Levin. I mean, look, we don’t get into throwing our toys out of the pram, we’re just saying, hey, Tel Aviv Levin and these guys have lost. The president couldn’t be clearer. The 12-Day War is over, he obliterated the nuclear– both the scientific capability and the industrial production, which is actually harder. It’s over and it’s time to pivot into focusing on more important things. I might note, Matt, as I was doing the show this morning, to show how relentless they are, they had a breaking news that Pakistan is now– they believe, the intelligence service believes Pakistan is working on an ICBM that can have intercontinental–
As Gaetz laughed, Bannon continued, “I’m not even kidding. You can’t make it up, right? As soon as Trump shuts down the window on one, they say they may have an ICBM capability for the United States because you always know Israel’s next target was always Pakistan. So it’s just ludicrous now.”
Last week, Bannon called specifically for an investigation into Fox News hosts Sean Hannity, Kayleigh McEnany, and Levin.