Former chief White House strategist Steve Bannon told CNBC in a recent interview that Hillary Clinton will join the 2020 Democratic primary, and that Sen. Elizabeth Warren is making moves to position herself as tougher on China than incumbent President Donald Trump.
“She’s trying to get to the right of President Trump,” said Bannon, who helped Trump win the 2016 election and served as his top strategist for seven tumultuous months before he was fired. “If you look at Elizabeth Warren, some of the Democrats, they’re trying to get to the right of Trump on China.”
Warren released a Medium blog post outlining her “economic patriotism” agenda in regard to how she would handle Beijing, saying “we’ve let China get away with the suppression of pay and labor rights, poor environmental protections, and years of currency manipulation.”
Bannon, the far-right Breitbart News founder, said China will be a big focus during the 2020 election for both sides. Candidates will all want to prove how tough they’ll be in working out a new trade deal, assuming Trump doesn’t get a deal done by the election, which seems unlikely at this time.
All signs currently point to some sort of limited deal moving forward, and then a full trade deal down the road.
Bannon said former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign is on the decline while Warren has charged hard toward the top, and she is willing and able to take on China.
He then went on to say that with Biden losing steam and Warren’s wealth tax proposals will lead to another centrist challenger joining the race, a la former first lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and possibly even former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, to challenge Warren.
Bannon’s prediction is in line with other rumors this week circulating that Clinton is dying to get into the race because she thinks “God put her on the earth” to be president.
Biden took exception to Bannon’s comments and campaign spokesman Andrew Bates wrote to CNBC: “When the festering underbelly of the alt-right is threatened by you, you know you’re standing up for our best values.”