Steve Bannon Out As Breitbart News Executive Chairman

WASHINGTON, DC — Steve Bannon has stepped down from his position as executive chairman at Breitbart News. The news comes less than a week after the release of "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House," in which author Michael Wolff quoted Bannon describing a June 2016 Trump campaign meeting with a Russian lawyer as "treasonous" and "unpatriotic."

On Tuesday, The New York Times reported that Bannon's former financial backer Rebekah Mercer was behind his ouster. Bannon had served in the position since 2012.

Bannon and Breitbart will work together on a smooth and orderly transition, Breitbart said in a post.

“I’m proud of what the Breitbart team has accomplished in so short a period of time in building out a world-class news platform," Bannon said.

Breitbart CEO Larry Solov said Bannon was "a valued part of our legacy" and that they'll always be grateful for his contributions.

With his exit at Breitbart, SiriusXM said in a statement that he will therefore "no longer host" on the radio station's programming, which has an agreement with Breitbart.

An analysis by the Southern Poverty Law Center from nearly a year ago said Breitbart News under Bannon fostered a comment section that increasingly mirrored language used by the white nationalist 'alt-right' movement, including anti-Semitic remarks.

"Comparing the language of Breitbart commenters to the language of the most aggressive far-right extremists online — e.g. language used by Twitter users who advocate for violence against minorities and are openly pro-Nazi — we can see a clear trend of increasing similarity over a three-year period, the bulk of it under Bannon," the organization said.

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