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Steve Bannon said he thought Donald Trump had dementia and launched a covert plan to remove him as president through the 25th Amendment, according to a new book by the veteran TV producer Isa Rosen.

Rosen shared the revelation while discussing his memoir based on his work on CBS' iconic news show 60 Minutes called Ticking Clock: Behind the Scenes at 60 Minutes,' on Skullduggery,a Yahoo News podcast.

In the memoir, released this week, he wrote that Bannon believed Trump "was suffering from early-stage dementia and that there was a real possibility he would be removed from office by the 25th Amendment."

The 25th Amendment exists for when the president is incapable of carrying out his duties.

Bannon, a former Executive Chairman of the hard-right Breitbart News, was Chief Executive Officer of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. He served as White House Chief Strategist and Senior Counselor to the President until Trump fired him in 2017, less than seven months after the inauguration.

Rosen told podcast hosts Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman that Trump "turned on Bannon" after he appeared on a Time magazine cover in February 2017, weeks after the president was sworn in.

Calling it a"conspiracy" in his book, the award-winning TV producer added: "Bannon realized that Trump was repeating the same stories over and over again and Bannon kept saying this and he wanted to do something about it."

Bannon even visited Republican super donor Robert Mercer's home and tried to recruit him to the plot, said Rosen.

"Now, the secret was that Bannon crazily thought that he could be president," said Rosen."He would have been very happy to see Trump disappear from the scenes, either through the 25th Amendment, resigning for whatever reason, and he would step in and fill the gulf and carry the mantle of the Trump followers. But he was delusional about it."

Rosen also includes a text that Bannon sent him in his book, which reads: "You need to do the 25th Amendment piece... BTW brother I never steer u wrong."

Rosen told Skullduggery that Bannon was a "big talker" and a gossip. He would often drop in for casual chats at the White House and said he had a "therapist" role with Bannon. He described, "loitering in the chief of staff's office, drinking Diet Cokes and he would kind of download to me on stories."

Bannon's tenure came to an abrupt end following reports of power struggles with Jared Kushner, Trump's senior advisor and son-in-law, as well as various other high-level White House staffers.

Trump had also become tired of him constantly taking credit for winning the election and their relationship fractured.

Bannon responded to Rosen's claims himself during his own 'War Room' podcast. He said: "This is another reporter trying to be a grifter and... complete, total fantasy."

He did hint of White Hosue whispers about invoking the 25th Amendment, implicating other former senior members of the Trump administration.

"If you want to find out whoever said about the 25th Amendment go and talk to "anonymous" and talk about John Kelly (the White House chief of staff from 2017-2019) and talk to Jim Mattis (the secretary of defense 2017-2018) and talk to the cabinet members," said Bannon.

Bannon and Trump have since patched up their differences. The former President pardoned Bannonjust days before leaving office after he was charged with defrauding Trump's political supporters amid a private effort to build a Mexican border wall.

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Steve Bannon believed Trump had dementia and plotted to remove him as president, according to new book - Business Insider

Rush Limbaughs death this week, at seventy, of lung cancer, closes the book on more than a quarter century of conservative media defined by Limbaugh and his friend Roger Ailes, the Fox News chairman and C.E.O., who died in 2017. Before Donald Trumps entry into Republican politics, and even before Fox began dominating the cable airwaves, in the late nineties, Limbaugh had an unparalleled ability to rile up the Republican base and move the Party closer to his vision of pure Reaganism. That vision consisted of lower taxes and less regulation, opposition to abortion, and an aggressive posture abroadthe so-called three-legged stool of the Ronald Reagan coalition. For decades, this was Limbaughs mantra, with an emphasis on tax cuts. But his embrace of Trump in his final years, and his willingness to subsume his conservatism into the cult of one man, offered a different view of Limbaugh. He finished his career less as a leader of the Republican Party than as simply another Trump follower.

Limbaugh, who was born to a prominent Missouri Republican family, began his broadcast career in his teens, and landed a spot on Sacramento radio, in 1984. Four years later, The Rush Limbaugh Show went national, beaming from New Yorks WABC. (It remained his flagship station for most of his career, although Limbaugh eventually moved to Florida.) Averse to taking callersthat was often reserved for FridaysLimbaugh had a remarkable ability to sustain a monologue, with only the commercials as breaks, for virtually the full three hours that his show aired each day. (Trumps ability to command the microphone for an astonishing amount of time is the only comparable example I can think of, but Limbaugh, unlike the former President, could stay remarkably focussed.) He would often start a show by informing his listeners about his stack of clippingsusually news articles and alertsand find ways to connect them to some overarching point he wanted to make, which often had to do with the magical effects of tax cuts on the economy, and the wastefulness of the federal government. If Thomas Jefferson thought taxation without representations was bad, he should see how it is with representation, he once said.

As he got older and richer, he was fond of half-jokingly talking about his wealth and success. He boasted of talent on loan from God, and once stated, I cant even destroy myself. Ive tried a couple times myself and it doesnt work. Im literally indestructible. Like Trump, who enjoys informing audiences about his Ivy League education and telling them that he has better things to do than come to their rallies, Limbaugh relished the fact that those vaunted tax cuts he always talked up were going to people like himself.

An endless stream of articles and books over the past five years have wrestled with the question of how Trump was able to pull off his particular act, appealing to audiences that didnt attend any college, let alone one in the Ivy League. Limbaughs success offers a clue. His radio program was home to Club for Growth bromides about the beauty of the private sector, but it also had another side, which consisted largely of bigotry. This was a man who featured a segment called AIDS Updates, in which he mockingly read the names of victims of the disease to the sounds of Dionne Warwick. He said that feminism was invented to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream of society. He uttered too many racist comments to count, but displayed a special hostility toward Barack Obama. In Obamas America, the white kids now get beat up with the Black kids cheering, he once said.

Limbaugh, like Trump, never seemed particularly passionate about conservative Christian causes. He took the right positions on abortion and gay marriage, but had an early insight that to much of his audience cultural grievances mattered more. One can argue that mocking AIDS victims and coming out strongly against gay marriage are both forms of bigotry. But many people who have unsavory political views do not make a habitor a careerout of personal cruelty. In a Limbaugh monologue from 2013 on gay marriage, he stated, A lot of people have no personal animus against gay people at all. Its, instead, a, um, genuine, I dont know, love, respect, for the things they believe define this country as great. He wasnt describing himself, and you could tell his heart wasnt in it. Compare that to comments such as There are a bunch of really crafty guys out there who probably, in the normal course of events, cant get women to look at em. And theyve decided, you know what? Im gonna go be tranny. The conviction was in the vitriol.

And yet, as much as Limbaugh was willing to lie to his audience about the details of Obamacarehe even claimed it would increase the divorce ratehe did seem to have a kernel of principle in his fealty to low taxes, less regulation, and free markets. Thus, Limbaugh could have viewed the rise of Trump in two ways. One would have been to say that here was someone who didnt care at all about movement conservatism; who probably only dimly knew who William F. Buckley, Jr., was; who broke with right-wing orthodoxy on trade and tariffs; and who had no vision of capitalism beyond its usefulness in making him richer and more famous. The other way was to view Trump as someone who had the same catalogue of resentments as Limbaugh did, andperhaps more importantlywas hated by the same people.

Limbaugh didnt wait long before making his decision: he was all in. By early 2016, he was defending Trump daily, and, perhaps more significantly, striking the same rhetorical tones. The Republican Party doesnt like the Republican base, he said, in January of that year, explaining that litism was the establishments reason for opposing Trump. If Trumps takeover of the G.O.P. revealed the degree to which cultural resentment mattered more to conservative voters than any single issue, Limbaughs journey served as an exemplar of this fact. When Trump took a stance that Limbaugh would have once objected tosuch as imposing new tariffsLimbaugh simply changed his opinion and backed Trump.

Limbaughs appeasement, or worse, of Trump raises the question of how much control he ever wielded in the Party. Limbaughs influence was at times overstated. His favored candidates did not necessarily win primarieswitness his failure to derail John McCain, in 2008and his ability to steer voters was probably always less than what was assumed. But if he didnt always have direct power, his role in laying the cultural groundwork for Trump cannot be understated. The Republicans never became the vehicle of pure economic libertarianism and fealty to conservative ideas that Limbaugh may have once hoped, but they did become a party that Limbaugh could love.

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How Rush Limbaugh Invented Donald Trump - The New Yorker

Outgoing President Donald Trump waves farewell as he boards Marine One at the White House in Washington, D.C., on January 20, 2021.

Donald Trump never donated to his own reelection campaign, but he did find plenty of other billionaires willing to write him checks. In total, Forbes identified 133 superrich donors who pitched in for Trumps 2020 campaign.

Trumps tycoons, who collectively make up about 14% of all American billionaires, tend to fall into a few specific categories. Several were longtime Republican mega-donors, like gambling mogul Sheldon Adelson, who died in January, and his wife, Miriam. Others knew Trump from their days in business, including Texas banker Andy Beal and casino king Phil Ruffin. About one quarter of them made their money in finance and investments, more than any other industry. About 10% got rich in real estate, while roughly the same number earned a fortune from the energy sector. Most of them came from three states: New York (19%), Texas (19%) and Florida (13%).

Sources: Federal Election Commission filings; Forbes Real-Time Billionaires list.

Some clearly benefited from having a friend in the White House. Miriam Adelson received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Kelcy Warren, chief executive of Energy Transfer Partners, got clearance for his Dakota Access Pipeline, as well as a seat on the board of trustees at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Harold Hamm, the oil baron, became an informal advisor. Linda McMahon, who is married to WWE Chief Executive Vince McMahon, accepted a role as head of the Small Business Administration, before moving on to chair a pro-Trump super-PAC named America First Action.

On average, the donors contributed about $285,000 to the Trump campaign and its joint-fundraising committees, which split their hauls with the Republican Party. About 9% of Trumps billionaire donors, however, gave less than $5,000. At least 19 also donated to pro-Trump super-PACs. Unlike other types of political committees, super-PACs can accept unlimited amounts of money. The Adelsons, for instance, gave $90 million to a pro-Trump super-PAC called Preserve America. Marvel Entertainment billionaire Isaac Perlmutter and his wife, Laura, gave $21 million to America First. Kelcy Warren donated $10 million to the same group.

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Here Are The Billionaires Who Donated To Donald Trump's 2020 Presidential Campaign - Forbes

WASHINGTON (AP) President Joe Bidens nominee for attorney general says the Justice Department must ensure laws are fairly and faithfully enforced and the rights of all Americans are protected, while reaffirming an adherence to policies to protect the departments political independence.

Judge Merrick Garland, who is set to appear Monday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, plans to tell senators that the attorney general must act as a lawyer for the people of the United States, not for the president. The Justice Department released a copy of Garlands opening statement late Saturday.

If confirmed, Garland would inherit a Justice Department that endured a tumultuous time under President Donald Trump rife with political drama and controversial decisions and abundant criticism from Democrats over what they saw as the politicizing of the nations top law enforcement agencies.

It is a fitting time to reaffirm that the role of the attorney general is to serve the Rule of Law and to ensure equal justice under the law, Garland says in his prepared statement.

The previous attorney general, William Barr, had also sought to paint himself as an independent leader who would not bow to political pressure. But Democrats repeatedly accused Barr of acting more like Trumps personal attorney than the attorney general. They pointed to a number of controversial decisions, including overruling career prosecutors to recommend a lower sentence for Trump ally Roger Stone and moving to dismiss the criminal case against former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn after he had twice pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

Barr resigned in late December, weeks after he told The Associated Press that the Justice Department had found no evidence of widespread voter fraud that would change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, countering Trumps baseless claims of election fraud.

In his prepared remarks Garland, a federal appeals court judge who was snubbed by Republicans in 2016 for a seat on the Supreme Court, lays out his plan to prioritize the departments civil rights work after the nationwide protests last year over the deaths of Black Americans by police. He highlights a key mission for the division: to protect the rights of all Americans and particularly the most vulnerable.

That mission remains urgent because we do not yet have equal justice. Communities of color and other minorities still face discrimination in housing, education, employment and the criminal justice system; and bear the brunt of the harm caused by pandemic, pollution and climate change, Garland says.

Garland also addresses domestic terrorism and rising extremist threats, pointing to his prior work in the Justice Department supervising the prosecution following the 1995 bombing in Oklahoma City.

And as federal prosecutors continue to bring cases following the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, Garland calls the insurrection a heinous attack that sought to distrust a cornerstone of our democracy: the peaceful transfer of power to a newly elected government.

So far, the Justice Department has charged more than 200 people with federal crimes in connection with the riot, including members of extremist groups accused of conspiracy and other offenses.

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Garland says laws must be 'fairly and faithfully enforced' - The Associated Press

New details emerged on Democrats' efforts to prevent Donald Trump from stealing the 2020 election in anew reportby Jane Mayer for The New Yorker.

Mayer reports that former Solicitor General Seth Waxman assembled the team after Trump's comments in March that the only way he could lose the election if there was fraud.

Waxman started brainstorming the "doomsday scenarios" that could occur, finally assembling a "three-and-a-half-page single-spaced list of potential catastrophes."

"Eleven months before the Senate impeachment trial exposed an unprecedented level of political savagery, Waxman quietly prepared for the worst. He reached out to two other former Solicitors General, Walter Dellinger and Donald Verrilli, who served as the Clinton and the Obama Administrations' advocates, respectively, before the Supreme Court. By April, they had formed a smallswatteam to coordinate with the Biden campaign. They called themselves the Three Amigos, but the campaign referred to them as SG3. Their goal: safeguarding the election," Mayer reported.

"Coordinating with the Biden campaign's lawyers, each of the Three Amigos headed up a separate task force. Verrilli rounded up volunteer legal teams to address the ways in which Trump might try to use his executive powers to disrupt voting. Dellinger focussed on what could go wrong after the electors cast their ballots, in December. Waxman handled everything else, including potentially rebellious state legislatures, which they considered the most likely threat. By May, he had twenty legal teams on it," The New Yorker reported.

The Biden campaign created hoodies reading "Team SG3" for the team.

Despite Biden been sworn-in as president, they are still worried about the future.

"The lesson we learned," Waxman said, "is that the state of our democracy is perilouseven more so than we thought. I am very, very worried."

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Biden had a secret elite legal team to stop Trump from stealing the election: report - Salon