Former President-elect Trump adviser Steve Bannon called Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg a criminal in an interview with Jonathan Karl on ABC's “This Week.”
During a discussion about Trump's relationship with Zuckerberg and other tech moguls and the fact that they will have first-class seats at Monday's inauguration, Bannon said Trump is “an oligarchy. defeated,” they said, “surrendered.”
Kahl then asked if Bannon believed Zuckerberg had “changed his mind.”
Bannon replied, “Absolutely not.” “I think Mark Zuckerberg is a criminal.”
Bannon said he wants Zuckerberg to be “appropriately brought to justice,” noting that Zuckerberg funneled millions of dollars to nonprofits that sent money to election officials in 2020. He mentioned “Zuckerbucks,” as the Republican Party refers to it. '' the meth founder said, but Republicans accused meth of being unfairly distributed between left-wing and right-wing areas.
“I would like to see a systematic verdict in the House, but I think it would be better to have a grand jury and a special prosecutor until 2020,” he continued.
When Kahl asked if Bannon was asking the Justice Department under President-elect Trump to prosecute Zuckerberg, Bannon clarified that he was not saying that.
“I'm not saying that. What I want is for the House to do it first. But if the House is not ready to do that, then look ahead to the 2020 elections. “We will have a special prosecutor,” he said. If there's nothing there, I seriously judge that there's nothing there. ”
But he said he believed Mr. Zuckerberg would be “the second to betray us.”
This is not the first time Bannon has harshly criticized Meta CEO, saying Zuckerberg “cannot be trusted” early last week and pushing baseless claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
“He'll flip if it suits him,” he said.
Mr. Bannon's remarks on ABC's “This Week” came after it was announced that Mr. Zuckerberg would host a black-tie reception on January 20, the day Trump takes office. In recent weeks, Mr. Zuckerberg has attended a series of meetings with Mr. Trump at the Mar-a-Lago resort, donated $1 million to a startup fund and swiftly ended Meta's fact-checking program. .
