On Tuesday, Breitbart News announced that Steve Bannon would no longer be an executive chairman of the company. Bannon's ousting was reportedly forced by Rebekah Mercer, a "onetime financial patron," after Bannon was unable to squash the anger that resulted from statements attributed to him in Michael Wolff's newly released book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House. In that book, quotes credited to Bannon questioned the mental fitness of Donald Trump, while others stated that a meeting Trump's son (Don Jr.) had with a group of Russians was perhaps "treasonous" and "unpatriotic." Bannon then attempted to walk back those comments this past Sunday by saying they were about Trump's ex-campaign chairman Paul Manafort and not Don Jr.
Bannon had been with Breitbart since 2012, and again in 2017 following a time where he briefly served in Trump's administration after helping run his campaign. According to The New York Times, he was pushed out of that role after less than eight months following repeated clashes with Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner.
On Tuesday Bannon released a routine statement on the development where he said he's "proud of what the Breitbart team has accomplished in so short a period of time in building out a world-class news platform." Similarly, the site said that "Bannon and Breitbart will work together on a smooth and orderly transition."
Less formally, according to an unnamed Breitbart employee who spoke to CNN, "everyone seems stunned." Additionally, other people who were close to the situation said that Bannon had been insistent over the past few days that he would remain in his position.
