Trump confidant and former chief strategist Steve Bannon says Kamala Harris’ run for president is doomed by her record in office and failure to act on Donald Trump’s criminal justice reform.
That means she is losing support from some of the key voter groups that will decide the election, he said.
He sent his statement from federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut, where he is in the final days of a four-month sentence for contempt of Congress.
And he said he should have been released by now under Trump legislation that reduced sentences for non-violent offenders.
‘The “Queen of Mass Incarceration,” Kamala Harris, will lose her bid for the presidency on 5 November because of black and Hispanic men rejecting her candidacy and refusing to vote for her due to her failure to implement President Trump’s First Step Act,’ he said in a statement first obtained by the National Pulse.
‘Tens of thousands of Black and Hispanic men should now be back with their families or on a detailed path of when they leave prison.’
Like other Democrats, then Sen. Harris voted in favor of the First Step Act, which shorted prison sentences for nonviolent offenders and allowed some prisoners early release.
It was the first criminal justice reform in decades, and was seen as key step in reducing racial disparities in sentencing.
Black offenders made up the vast majority of people receiving reductions.
However, there have been frequent reports that the measures have not been properly implemented, with prisoner groups saying thousands of people have remained locked up far longer than they should have been.
Bannon said Blame lay with Harris.
‘Harris played politics with people’s lives, and now she will pay for her arrogance—Black and Hispanic men detest her and will never vote for her,’ he said.
‘It’s impossible for her to win Pennsylvania, Michigan, or Georgia without this critical vote. Harris’s Bureau of Prisons keeps me incarcerated 10 days longer than is legal because of the same failure to implement FSA.’
In a court filing, he says he has accrued 10 days worth of First Step Act credits, which mean he should have been released to home confinement on Saturday,
‘There is no reason for Mr. Bannon to remain in prison despite earning those credits,’ his lawyers say. ‘The Court should grant Mr. Bannon’s motion and order him released immediately.’
Harris has tried to weave a careful course on law and order. She has been accused of being soft on crime as a ‘progressive prosecutor’ in California.
At the same time Trump has made striking gains with Black and Hispanic voters during the campaign.
A USA Today/Suffolk University poll published Monday found Harris’ overall lead had dropped to just one point over Trump.
But since the poll was last conducted seven weeks ago, she had lost ground among black voters and among Latino voters, who now support Trump 49 percent to 38 percent.
Her overall lead with black voters is now 55 points, well below where Democratic candidates normally poll even allowing for a nine-point margin of error.
The DailyMail.com/J.L. Partners election model showed Trump opening his biggest lead yet over Harris on Monday.
It shows that he now wins in 65.9 percent of simulations when the algorithm runs through all possible combinations of data.
That is a big jump from Friday when the model was last run. Then he won in 61.4 percent of simulations.
With just two weeks to go until Election Day, it suggests time is running out for the vice president.
Trump spent the weekend in the pivotal battleground state of Pennsylvania, serving fries to McDonald’s customers and attending a Pittsburgh Steelers game.
On Monday, he flew to Asheville, North Carolina, to see the Hurricane Helene-ravaged city for himself.
Harris was in Philadelphia on Monday with Republican Liz Cheney, making an appeal to disaffected conservative voters.