Before Steve Bannon aligned himself with Donald Trump, he auditioned several other political figures. Initially, it seemed as if he was positioning Sarah Palin to be his public puppet. A number of “exclusive” columns from Palin began appearing on the homepage of Breitbart. The flirtation with Palin didn’t last long, as it was very clear she had no future as a political candidate in 2016 or beyond.
Next, Bannon courted Sen. Rand Paul. You might recall Breitbart touting itself as the exclusive destination for his weekly columns. As the 2016 GOP primary began, Bannon and Breitbart would become friendly to Sen. Cruz and Dr. Ben Carson. I remember Steve talking about being Carson's chief of staff if Carson were to win.
That’s when I realized Steve was definitively using Breitbart to pave his way to the West Wing. For him, it seemed that Breitbart was a means to an end. He could ingratiate himself with campaigns and candidates by providing them access to a platform that reached millions of Republican primary voters.