Responding to Steve Bannon calling for ICE and the military to surround the polls, Ben Shapiro says, “what Bannon is trying to do here is actually play into the Democrats' hands”
Shapiro on Bannon: “A person all over the Epstein files and who did 15 hours of sit down interviews with Jeffrey Epstein acting as a quasi PR flack for the child molester”
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From the February 5, 2026, edition of The Daily Wire's The Ben Shapiro Show
BEN SHAPIRO (HOST): Now, again, I think the Trump administration is course correcting. I will tell you what is not helpful is when Steve Bannon -- I will say, once again, a person all over the Epstein files and who did 15 hours of sit-down interviews with Jeffrey Epstein acting as a quasi-PR flack for the child molester.
Steve Bannon, who desperately wants to run for president apparently in 2028. Right now, he's playing this game where he says he wants Trump to run in 2028. He knows that's not possible, then he will reluctantly step into the fray. Steve has no chance of becoming president, of course, but he would like to maximize his profile by doing so and saying obnoxious things on stage because that is what Steve Bannon does.
He came out yesterday and suggested, quote, we're going to have ICE surround the polls come November. We're not gonna sit here and allow you to steal the country again, and you can whine and cry and throw your toys out of the pram all you want, but we will never again allow an election to be stolen. He says President Trump has to nationalize the election. You've gotta put not just, I think, ICE. You've gotta call it the 83 and 101st Airborne on the Insurrection Act. You've got to get around every poll and make sure only people with IDs, people actually registered to vote, and people in the United States as citizens vote in this election.
Now I'm in favor of voter ID. I'm very much against voter fraud. But what Bannon is trying to do here is actually play into the Democrats' hands. That's actually what he wants to do. Steve's a clever character, but, again, what he's doing here is fairly obvious. What he would like to do is say the most outrageous thing to get the base to cheer and rally around him and then have the left attack him in order to maximize his own profile. The Trump administration is moderating its rhetoric for a smart reason because they would like to see their mission actually effectuated. Democrats are looking for precisely that sort of rhetoric in order to jump on it.