Former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon said in a new interview he believes there was less “chaos” in the White House under former chief of staff Reince Priebus.
In an interview with the Swiss weekly magazine Die Weltwoche, Bannon was asked about Priebus’s recent comments in which he said his tenure in the administration was more chaotic than was reported.
“Take everything you’ve heard and multiply it by 50,” Priebus said, according to an excerpt from the book “The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency,” by Chris Whipple.
{mosads}Bannon, who worked alongside Priebus, called him a “great” chief of staff who “did a terrific job.”
“I don’t think it was that much chaos,” Bannon said. “If he was talking it was probably emotional. I think it was actually there was less chaos under Reince than there is today.”
Priebus was fired in July and was immediately replaced by current chief of staff John Kelly.
When asked what he thought of Kelly’s job performance, Bannon said it’s “been fine” while adding that Kelly is a “very good man.”
“There is always some issues. I was making the point that Reince gets blamed. I don’t think Reince is that out of control,” he said. “I think Reince did a pretty good job as chief of staff. Given … the president has his own style.”
Bannon left the White House in August, and earlier this year experienced a dramatic falling-out with Trump after Bannon was quoted criticizing Donald Trump Jr. in a book about the Trump White House.
Bannon was ousted from Breitbart News in January, where he served as chairman after leaving Trump’s White House.