Both were smiling — but in a teeth-gritting kind of way — as GOP Rep. Nancy Mace and Steve Bannon briefly sparred on Bannon’s War Room podcast.
Appearing with Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, Mace of South Carolina exchanged some snide comments with Bannon regarding Mace’s 2021 vote to hold Bannon in criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to appear before the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol incursion.
In a Wednesday posting on X, formerly known as Twitter, Citizen Free Press showed Gaetz describing how he is portrayed in New York Times reporting as “hard liner,” “ultra-MAGA,” and “far right.”
Gaetz then made reference to Mace, a pro-LGBT Republican seeking a middle ground on abortion who joined Democrats in voting for criminal contempt charges against Bannon.
“Let’s talk about this for a moment,” Gaetz said. “Nancy is not a hard right intransigent lawmaker. But our Venn diagram overlaps…”
Bannon interrupted: “Didn’t she vote to send me to federal prison for four months?”
Countered Mace: “I like the Constitution. I’m a constitutionalist.”
“My fellow lawyer would disagree about that,” Bannon responded.
Steve Bannon: “Didn’t you vote to send me to federal prison?”
Nancy Mace: “I like the Constitution.”
Bannon: “My lawyer would disagree.” pic.twitter.com/Br5PcDSzRG
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) October 4, 2023
Bannon currently is free on appeal after being sentenced to four months in federal prison following his 2022 conviction on two counts of contempt of Congress.
The January 6 committee was seeking information from Bannon about any role former President Donald Trump might have played in the Capitol event.
His defense has been executive privilege stemming from being chief strategist and counsel for Trump. The prosecution maintains Bannon is not shielded from testimony regarding Jan. 6 since at the time he was no longer at the White House.
Regarding the criminal contempt vote, Mace in 2021 said: “I want to preserve the subpoena power that Congress has,” according to South Carolina’s Post and Courier.
“We need to have the ability to uphold that authority and power in the Constitution. I’m going to have the same position for whoever is in power, Republican or Democrat,” she said.
Spearheaded by Biden Attorney General Merrick Garland, the grand jury indictment was considered by The Wall Street Journal to be unusual.
“The case against Mr. Bannon represents a rare kind of prosecution for the Justice Department, which has declined to act on other contempt-of-Congress referrals in recent years,” the Journal said at the time.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.