--- title: "Steve Bannon Pushes All the Chips In, Because Losing the House Means Subpoenas" description: "Trump’s former strategist says Democrats would bring impeachments and “Fort Apache,” says Iran is “obliterated enough,” and still disputes 2020" author: "Nate Ledger" published: 2026-10-11T13:59:00Z modified: 2026-10-11T20:48:14Z url: https://rews.cc/a/steve-bannon-pushes-all-the-chips-in-because-losing-the-hous-a38c6c language: en tags: ["trump", "politics", "midterms", "iran", "war", "us"] publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)" --- # Steve Bannon Pushes All the Chips In, Because Losing the House Means Subpoenas *Trump’s former strategist says Democrats would bring impeachments and “Fort Apache,” says Iran is “obliterated enough,” and still disputes 2020* By Nate Ledger · October 11, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/steve-bannon-pushes-all-the-chips-in-because-losing-the-hous-a38c6c ## In brief - Steve Bannon told CBS News’ Ted Koppel that Republicans “can’t afford to lose” the midterms and should go all in - He predicted impeachments of RFK Jr. and Pete Hegseth and daily subpoenas if Democrats win the House - Bannon said midterms turn on base turnout, so Republicans don’t need majority support - He said Iran’s nuclear program is “obliterated enough” and defended Trump’s off-script remarks - Bannon said the 22nd Amendment could be bypassed, praised Germany’s AfD and still claimed Trump won in 2020 Ted Koppel asked Steve Bannon how he would bet on next month’s midterms, and Bannon gave him the answer you would expect from a man who doesn’t really do bets. “I would push all our chips in the middle of the table and say, ‘Guys, there’s no retreat, and there’s no substitute for victory. Let’s fight like hell,’” he said in an interview recorded on September 29 in the studio of his podcast, *War Room*, and [aired by CBS News](https://cbsnews.com/news/steve-bannon-on-the-gop-and-the-midterms-we-cant-afford-to-lose/) on Sunday. Can Republicans afford to lose? “Oh, we can’t afford to lose. I don’t think there’s any doubt about that.” Going all in is the right move when losing a little feels the same as losing everything, and that is pretty much how Bannon describes the stakes. On his podcast he has warned that “if we lose the House, it’s going to turn the White House into Fort Apache.” To Koppel he described the siege: “I think you’ll see Bobby Kennedy impeached, I’ll think you see Pete Hegseth impeached. I think you’ll see subpoenas flying every day. They will look to destroy President Trump, and we’ll be bogged down for two years.” I think the interesting thing about this pitch is who it’s aimed at. Most of the pain he lists lands on the administration. Cabinet secretaries get impeached, staff get subpoenaed, the White House gets “bogged down.” For an ordinary voter, “please vote Republican so the health secretary doesn’t have to testify” is a pretty specialised appeal. Koppel pointed out that polls suggest most voters don’t find it persuasive. Bannon didn’t really disagree. “But you don’t need the majority,” he said. “Here’s my point on the midterm: Remember, midterm elections are always driven by base getting out, and the base’s ability to get more of their low-propensity voters out.” ![Two hands gather red and cream poker chips beside a dark blue ballot box with a blank cream paper protruding from its slot.](https://rews.cc/img/9bfc3a637af90193c9ded626a204053727ada784.webp) So the plan is to frighten the people who already agree with you badly enough that they actually show up. That fits the [turnout-over-persuasion approach](https://rews.cc/a/trump-s-midterm-plan-no-persuasion-just-turnout-and-a-very-b-813f22) the White House has been running all autumn. Bannon even praised the Democratic Socialists on these terms, saying “they have a ground game” and “dedicated people and they’re going to turn out their vote.” That reads less like admiration and more like a warning to his own side. ## Obliterated, enough The obvious headwind is the war with Iran, which [most Americans tell pollsters](https://rews.cc/a/nearly-70-of-americans-say-the-iran-war-is-not-worth-fightin-4369e2) they oppose. Bannon’s answer was to split it in two. “Let’s bifurcate the war,” he said, pointing to “the first part, the 12-day war, and President Trump, the total obliteration of their nuclear program.” Koppel noted that Iran’s nuclear capabilities have not in fact been totally obliterated. Bannon replied: “I believe it’s obliterated enough.” “Obliterated” used to be a yes-or-no word. Now it has degrees. For the remaining degrees, Bannon said, there is economic warfare: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s pressure on Iran’s currency and “the blockade on the oil.” He also defended the president’s stamina. Trump turned 80 this year, and Bannon claimed he works 20 hours a day. He defended the speeches too, including Trump’s [recent suggestion at a Nebraska rally](https://rews.cc/a/a-rally-in-nebraska-and-a-president-offers-two-american-citi-4c3614) that Iran “take out” Los Angeles or San Diego. “I would not call them ‘drivel,’” Bannon said. “President Trump has been known to go off-script.” He said the people embarrassed by Trump are the “media elite” and the “East Coast elite”, and that working-class Americans “are not embarrassed.” ![A pink eraser rubs away part of a cream atom symbol, leaving scattered crumbs against a bright blue background.](https://rews.cc/img/4121ace695bf4c96e3ef8ffa419391114845c474.webp) ## The truck Bannon calls himself “the leader of trying to get President Trump to run for a third term,” and he admits the effort seems to be stalling: “It appears that he’s not interested or it just won’t happen.” He still won’t accept that the 22nd Amendment, which limits presidents to two terms, gets in the way. “Oh, I think you could drive a truck through that amendment,” he said, adding that constitutional lawyers had shown him “a number of different alternatives” and that “it’d be contested, because everything \[Trump\] does is contested in the courts.” In January he told Axios you could drive [“a Mack Truck”](https://www.axios.com/2026/01/10/steve-bannon-2028-campaign-maga) through it, so the vehicle has shrunk a bit since then. That same Axios report quoted close associates of Bannon who said he keeps raising the third term because he wants to run himself. Bannon called that idea “bullsh\*t.” In his telling, Trump belongs alongside Washington and Lincoln. Washington “was there at the birth of the nation,” Lincoln was its rebirth, and “I think 99% of MAGA believes” that Trump “was there for the salvation of the nation.” People like that, he said, “can’t be replaced.” That is a sensible thing to believe about someone you have no plans to replace. ## Influences Bannon got into politics making films for the Tea Party, and he told Koppel that when critics called his work “fascist filmmaking” he replied that “Leni Riefenstahl was one of the most powerful filmmakers ever.” He described her as “amoral” and “a filmmaker for the Nazis,” but said he was trying to recreate the power of her films so that “the little guy” understood he could have a voice. In Alison Klayman’s 2019 documentary *The Brink*, Bannon is heard asking: “What would Leni Riefenstahl do? How would Leni cut that scene?” ![A film projector casts a cream beam across a yellow background, where a small person casts an enormous human-shaped shadow.](https://rews.cc/img/2bb54fcf92ebdbb14e1581de05b7f07177e80950.webp) His more recent role models are in Europe. In 2018 he told France’s National Front congress that it was “part of a worldwide movement that is bigger than France.” Now he is close to Germany’s AfD, which [won 43.8% of the vote](https://www.osw.waw.pl/en/publikacje/analyses/2026-09-07/germany-afd-scores-landslide-victory-saxony-anhalt) in Saxony-Anhalt’s state election on September 6, according to Poland’s Centre for Eastern Studies. That was the party’s best result ever, though short of an absolute majority. “Alternative for Deutschland is now here to teach us,” Bannon said, crediting door-to-door campaigning “with no campaign money” on a platform of reindustrialisation, ending “mass immigration” and “re-migration.” Is the United States moving toward fascism? “It’s not fascism. It’s actually more inclusionary, it’s more entrepreneurial,” Bannon said. “Remember if you go back, we win at the ballot box. The MAGA movement has only lost the Pelosi election of ’18.” That count is one, and the actual number is two, because Trump lost in 2020 to Joe Biden. “That’s not true. We won!” Bannon said. Koppel brought up the more than 60 court cases Trump lost while alleging fraud, and Bannon said: “We can go debate this another time, but we didn’t have standing. We never even got into court.” Koppel conceded that he was technically right, because no judge found a case worth hearing. Bannon served four months in prison for contempt of Congress after refusing to testify about the run-up to January 6. That is useful context for his warning that a Democratic House would mean “subpoenas flying every day.” He has experience on the receiving end of those.