I asked Bannon about the connection between his program of economic nationalism and the ugly white nationalism epitomized by the racist violence in Charlottesville and Trump’s reluctance to condemn it. Bannon, after all, was the architect of the strategy of using Breitbart to heat up white nationalism and then rely on the radical right as Trump’s base.

He dismissed the far right as irrelevant and sidestepped his own role in cultivating it: “Ethno-nationalism—it's losers. It's a fringe element. I think the media plays it up too much, and we gotta help crush it, you know, uh, help crush it more.”

“These guys are a collection of clowns,” he added.

Maybe he did it at Trump's/Kelley's request? That bold line in particular was strange to me, but makes sense from a PR standpoint. It's not exactly "they need to be wiped off the earth".. he just thinks we have to crush it *more*. Kind of the lukewarm fake upset you'd expect from someone being disingenuous -- not to mention the little punch at the media. Gotta get that in.