Steve Bannon calls Joaquin Castro's tweets of Trump donor information 'unacceptable' and 'dangerous'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Steve Bannon, the former White House chief strategist, called Texas Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro’s move to post the names and employers of dozens of Trump campaign donors in the San Antonio area both “unacceptable” and “dangerous.”
Speaking on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Bannon argued that moves like Castro’s show the “anarchy of the radical” and that leaders in the Democratic Party need to put a halt to such moves.
“The Democratic Party has become so radicalized and what you see in Castro in unacceptable to weaponize people’s donations, private citizens’ donations,” Bannon said. “This is going to get very dangerous.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}TRUMP CAMPAIGN BLASTS DEM REP FOR TRYING TO NAME AND SHAME DONORS: 'DELETE & APOLOGIZE'
Bannon added: “Somebody in the Democratic Party has got to stand up and take leadership. They got to call these people out and have to hold them accountable.”
Castro, who is the brother and campaign chairman for 2020 Democratic presidential primary hopeful Julián Castro, tweeted earlier this week the names of 44 prominent donors in San Antonio who have contributed to President Trump’s reelection campaign. The move blew up in Castro’s face when it was revealed that one of the donors, Wayne Harwell, had also contributed to the Texas lawmaker’s own campaign.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Harwell, the owner of a local real estate development company whose name appeared on the list Castro shared on Monday night, told Fox News in a phone interview that he donated money to Castro’s congressional campaign. But he suggested that after Castro outed him in a bid to shame Trump supporters, he won't be supporting Castro anymore.
“I was also on a list of people that gave to Castro and if he dislikes me enough that he wants to put my name out there against Trump, I’m not going to give money to him,” Harwell told Fox News. “Obviously Castro feels pretty strongly against me.”
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Besides being lambasted by Bannon and Harwell, Castro’s move drew strong condemnation from his colleagues across the aisle in the House.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy called it “shameful and dangerous,” and implied that Castro was motivated by his brother Julian's presidential campaign.
“Targeting and harassing Americans because of their political beliefs is shameful and dangerous,” McCarthy said. “What happened to 'when they go low, we go high?' Or does that no longer matter when your brother is polling at 1 percent? Americans deserve better.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fox Business Network's Maria Bartiromo contributed to this report.