CNN host says ‘we already knew’ Steve Bannon was ‘on the side of Nazis’ after CPAC salute

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Comedian and CNN host W. Kamau Bell noted that while Steve Bannon may have been “playing footsie with Nazism” with his straight-armed salute at CPAC, the former Trump strategist didn’t need to because “we already knew Steve Bannon was on the side of Nazis.” During last week’s CPAC event, Bannon appeared to replicate the “Roman salute” that “first buddy” Elon Musk – whom Bannon has been intensely feuding with – emphatically threw out during his Inauguration Day speech. With another CPAC speaker also mimicking Musk’s salute, which has sparked additional copycats across the right-wing ecosphere, a far-right French political leader canceled his speech at the right-wing confab “one of the speakers provocatively made a gesture referring to Nazi ideology.” At the same time, actual neo-Nazis felt that Bannon’s attempt at provocation was a “little excessive” and just an attempt to draw a reaction. “But you don’t have to do that because we already knew Steve Bannon was on the side of Nazis.” Bannon, for his part, has denied that he intentionally made a fascist salute at the end of his appearance, claiming instead that he merely “waved to the MAGA movement as I always do in my motivational speeches.” Pointing out that even prominent white nationalists are saying this recent trend of salutes at conservative events is “going too far,” Sidner asked Bell what the end goal is for the MAGA figures engaging in this behavior. “It proves that they are actually out there really trying to sort of gaslight us into sort of thinking that they‘re not doing that, while at the same time signaling to the Nazis and the neo-Nazis, ‘I’m on your side.’” He added that the controversy surrounding Musk is one reason the far-right Alternative for Germany party didn’t place first in the latest German elections despite a recent surge of support in the country.