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Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon rallied his shock troops Saturday at the Values Voter Summit, promising evangelical leaders a 400-electoral-vote re-election win for the president in 2020.
"Right now it's a season of war against the GOP establishment," Bannon said, pointing to the victory of insurgent Judge Roy Moore in an Alabama Republican primary last month.
Bannon, who campaigned for Moore after being ousted from the White House in August, has vowed to mount primary campaigns against Republicans who refuse to push President Trump's agenda in Congress.
He has gotten behind at least a dozen challengers -- including Staten Island's Michael Grimm, who is running against Republican Rep. Dan Donovan to win back his old seat in Congress after serving eight months in prison for tax fraud.
Bannon said Moore's win was a wake-up call for the Trump administration.
In the Alabama primary, Trump backed incumbent Sen. Luther Strange -- even though many of Trump's own supporters preferred the firebrand Moore.
In the weeks since Moore's victory, Bannon said, Team Trump has worked harder to deliver on his campaign promises. Trump has laid out demands for immigration reform, refused to certify the Iran deal and moved to withdraw payments to health-insurance companies under ObamaCare.
"Victory begets victory," Bannon said with glee on Saturday. "Every day is like Christmas Day now."
The president's former campaign strategist lashed out repeatedly at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who supported incumbent Strange's primary fight with $32 million of campaign cash.
"In Alabama, you took Mitch McConnell's money and you took it from his greatest asset to his biggest liability," Bannon told his audience of Trump admirers.
Bannon said values voters' grass-roots get-out-the-vote effort resulted in a win for the underfunded Moore.
"The more money they spend, the fewer votes they get," he said.
Bannon says the same fate could be in store for Senate Republicans who remain silent in the face of attacks on Trump from within the party. He called out Sens. John Barrasso of Wyoming, Dean Heller of Nevada and Deb Fischer of Nebraska as potential primary-election targets.
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