Steve Bannon, who resigned as executive chairman of Breitbart yesterday, won’t be joining America’s leading media network for conservative thought. 
 
 “Fox News will not be hiring Steve Bannon,” a network spokesperson said. However, he could turn up as a guest on the network, but we haven’t heard of any pending bookings for FNC, CNN or MSNBC. 
 
 There’s a reason Fox is quick to distance itself from Bannon, as revealed in Michael Wolff‘s Trump tell-all Fire and Fury. Bannon has no love for Rupert Murdoch, executive chairman of 21st Century Fox, and, since the departure of Roger Ailes in 2016, chairman of Fox News Channel. Wolff writes: 
 
 Bannon collected enemies. Few fueled his savagery and rancor toward the standard-issue Republican world as much as Rupert Murdoch–not least because Murdoch had Donald Trump’s ear. It was one of the key elements of Bannon’s understanding of Trump: the last person Trump spoke to ended up with enormous influence. “He doesn’t know anything about American politics; and has no feel for the American people,” said Bannon to Trump, always eager to point out that Murdoch wasn’t an American. 
 
 Murdoch, born in Australia, has been living in the U.S. since 1973. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1985. 
 
 Bannon had been executive chairman of Breitbart since 2012. He left the publication to join the Trump campaign and became the president’s chief strategist. He was fired 6 months into that job and returned to Breitbart. But after his comments to Wolff about the president’s mental fitness, revealed in Fire and Fury, Breitbart began to distance itself from Bannon leading to his resignation Tuesday. 
 
 Comments ||||| Former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon will not be signed by Fox News or by CNN following his ouster from Breitbart News on Tuesday, according to the networks. 
 
 “Fox News will not be hiring Steve Bannon Stephen (Steve) Kevin BannonIt’s time for conservatives to retire the term �?alt-right’ Kurtz sees media forfeiting credibility in war with Trump Bannon wanted Trump to keep Yellen as Fed chair: report MORE,” a network spokesperson confirmed to The Hill. 
 
 A CNN spokesman also confirmed to The Hill that they are not interested in hiring Bannon. 
 
 The decision by the networks comes after SiriusXM also said Tuesday that the former White House chief strategist will no longer host a radio show after it was announced he was stepping down. 
 
 
 
 "Breitbart News has decided to end its relationship with Stephen K. Bannon, therefore he will no longer host on SiriusXM since our programming agreement is with Breitbart News," SiriusXM said in a statement. 
 
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 Bannon, 64, had rejoined Breitbart News's SiriusXM radio show as host in December. He departed from the White House in August in what President Trump Donald John TrumpAccuser says Trump should be afraid of the truth Woman behind pro-Trump Facebook page denies being influenced by Russians Shulkin says he has White House approval to root out 'subversion' at VA MORE has since characterized as a firing. 
 
 Bannon announced he was leaving Breitbart News on Tuesday after making controversial remarks about Trump's family to Michael Wolff, the author of the book "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House," which has dominated headlines since being released last week. 
 
 The populist firebrand became executive chairman of Breitbart News in 2012 following the sudden death of founder Andrew Breitbart, who died of a heart attack at age 43. 
 
 Bannon's career has been in flux since the publication of Wolff’s book. 
 
 In the book, which immediately became a best-seller, Bannon was quoted as calling Donald Trump Jr. Donald (Don) John TrumpTrump Jr. praises 'spirit' of poverty-stricken Indians: 'Still a smile on a face' State Dept. says it did not coordinate with Trump Jr. on India speech The Hill's 12:30 Report MORE “treasonous” and “unpatriotic” for meeting with a Russian lawyer during his father’s presidential campaign. 
 
 Trump slammed Bannon in a statement by claiming that the former Goldman Sachs investment banker had “lost his mind” after the comments on Trump Jr. first came to light. 
 
 In Wolff's book, Bannon said, "They're [the special counsel's team] going to crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV." 
 
 Bannon has since apologized for the comments, but the White House has rejected the overture. 
 
 “When you go after somebody’s family in the [manner] which he did, two of the president’s children are serving this nation, sacrificing in their service, it is repugnant, it is grotesque and I challenge anybody to go and talk about somebody’s family and see if that person doesn’t come back and comes back hard,” said White House spokesman Hogan Gidley. 
 
 In August, following Sean Spicer Sean Michael SpicerSpicer: Behar's comments about Pence's faith 'despicable' Report: Turnover rate in Trump White House highest in decades White House still doesn't have Spanish-language website year into admin MORE's departure from the White House, all three cable news networks indicated they would not hire the former press secretary. 
 
 The Hill has also reached out to MSNBC for comment on the possibility of opening talks with Bannon. 
 
 - Updated at 11:30 a.m. ||||| On the morning he was being ousted as Donald Trump’s chief strategist last Friday, Steve Bannon had already turned the page. “Why do you sound unfazed?” a friend asked Bannon as news of his demise ricocheted across the web. “Because,” Bannon replied, “we’re going to war.” Hours later, Bannon was calling into the editorial meeting at Breitbart News, rallying his troops to continue the battles he waged inside the White House. “We have a duty to the country to be the vanguard of ‘The Movement,’” he told his staff, according to one person on the call. Bannon’s main targets are the West Wing’s coterie of New York Democrat “globalists”—Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner and former Goldman Sachs president Gary Cohn—as well as the “hawks,” comprised of National Security Adviser H.R McMaster and his deputy, Dina Powell. “He wants to beat their ideas into submission,” Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow told me. “Steve has a lot of things up his sleeve.” 
 
 The chaotic, war-torn West Wing of the past six months will be prologue, but the coming struggles will be as personal as they are ideological, waged not with leaks but with slashing Breitbart banners. On Sunday, Breitbart took renewed aim at McMaster, with a headline claiming he advocated “Quran Kissing.” But most of all, there’s a deep animosity between Bannon and Kushner, amplified by a lack of respect. Bannon finds Kushner’s political instincts highly questionable. “He said Jared is a dope,” one Bannon ally recalled. The two clashed fiercely on personnel decisions and policy debates, both domestic and international, many of which Bannon lost. But Bannon, who was the only West Wing advisor to publicly support the president’s response to the violence in Charlottesville, is especially galled at being scapegoated as an anti-Semite in its wake. “It’s one of the attacks he takes most personally because it’s not true,” a Breitbart staffer told me. Bannon’s allies lay out a more complicated backstory. Bannon, they say, lobbied Trump aggressively to move America’s embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, but was blocked by Kushner. And, according to three Bannon allies, Bannon pushed a tougher line against the Palestinians than Kushner did. In May, when Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas visited the White House, Bannon stayed home. “I’m not going to breathe the same air as that terrorist,” Bannon texted a friend. 
 
 In the final weeks, Bannon was relentlessly tarred as a prime West Wing leaker, but Bannon’s allies make a similar case about Kushner. Specifically, they believe that Kushner cultivated a relationship with Matt Drudge, who frequently pushed anti-Bannon headlines—“The Total Eclipse of Steve Bannon”; “Bannon ‘Is the Real President”—in the weeks leading up to Trump’s decision to defenestrate him. Bannon also told friends that he believed Kushner encouraged Fox News chairman Rupert Murdoch to lobby Trump to fire him. Last week, The New York Times reported that Murdoch told Trump over a private dinner with Kushner that Trump needed to jettison his chief strategist. The Bannon camp believes that Murdoch was especially receptive to Kushner’s lobbying because Murdoch is worried about the rise of Sinclair Broadcasting as a competitor to Fox, and blames Bannon for Trump’s decision so far not to block the Sinclair’s $3.9 billion takeover of Tribune Media in May. 
 
 Bannon has media ambitions to compete with Fox News from the right. Last week in New York, he huddled with his billionaire benefactor, Robert Mercer, and discussed ways to expand Breitbart into TV, sources said. “Television is definitely on the table,” a Bannon adviser told me. A partnership with Sinclair remains a possibility. In recent days, Sinclair’s chief political analyst Boris Epshteyn has spoken with Breitbart editors about ways to form an alliance, one Breitbart staffer said. “All the Sinclair guys are super tight with Breitbart. Imagine if we got together Hannity and O’Reilly and started something?” 
 
 Meanwhile, the next phase has already begun. On Sunday, the website’s lead story was based on a Daily Mail report that said Ivanka was behind Bannon’s removal. “Trump’s daughter Ivanka pushed out Bannon because of his ‘far-right views’ clashing with her Jewish faith,” the article noted. Another piece was headlined: “6 TIMES JAVANKA’S DISPLEASURE WITH POTUS LEAKED TO PRESS.” In his feud with Kushner, Bannon may have a powerful ally: Reince Priebus, also recently departed from the White House with a quiver of grudges. Recently, according to several sources, Bannon has told friends he wants Priebus to give his account of the James Comey firing to special prosecutor Robert Mueller. According to a source close to Priebus, the former chief of staff believes that the decision was made during an early May weekend in Bedminster, where Kushner, Ivanka Trump, and Stephen Miller were with the president. Trump returned to the Oval Office on Monday, May 8 and told other aides he intended to fire Comey. 
 
 At Breitbart, Bannon has a brigade of similarly happy warriors. “We’re in a loud bar celebrating the return of our captain!” Breitbart’s Washington editor Matt Boyle told me on Friday night. Breitbart’s defense of Trump has so far helped keep the Russia scandal from gaining traction on the right. But that could swiftly change if Trump, under the influence of Kushner and Cohn, deviates too far from the positions he ran on. If that happens, said one high-level Breitbart staffer, “We’re prepared to help Paul Ryan rally votes for impeachment.” ||||| 1 big thing: Trump kneecaps Bannon Allies of Steve Bannon fear the White House chief strategist is about to be pushed out, following the posting last night of an ominous interview with Trump by Michael Goodwin, a New York Post columnist and someone the president has been comfortable with over many years. The brutal headline: "Trump won't definitively say he still backs Bannon." 
 
 "Trump won't definitively say he still backs Bannon." What Trump said: "I like Steve, but you have to remember he was not involved in my campaign until very late ... I had already beaten all the senators and all the governors, and I didn't know Steve. I'm my own strategist and it wasn't like I was going to change strategies because I was facing crooked Hillary. ... Steve is a good guy, but I told them to straighten it out or I will." 
 
 "I like Steve, but you have to remember he was not involved in my campaign until very late ... I had already beaten all the senators and all the governors, and I didn't know Steve. I'm my own strategist and it wasn't like I was going to change strategies because I was facing crooked Hillary. ... Steve is a good guy, but I told them to straighten it out or I will." The instant fallout: Axios' Jonathan Swan hears Bannon allies inside and outside the White House were taken by surprise when Goodwin's column posted, and are distraught. Bannon allies are bitter about the role they believe economic adviser Gary Cohn has played in undercutting their guy to POTUS. In private conversations, they call him "Globalist Gary." In text messages, the shorthand is CTC (Carbon Tax Cohn) or one simple emoji: 🌎. 
 
 Axios' Jonathan Swan hears Bannon allies inside and outside the White House were taken by surprise when Goodwin's column posted, and are distraught. Bannon allies are bitter about the role they believe economic adviser Gary Cohn has played in undercutting their guy to POTUS. In private conversations, they call him "Globalist Gary." In text messages, the shorthand is CTC (Carbon Tax Cohn) or one simple emoji: 🌎. What got Bannon in trouble: Axios AM is told that President Trump didn't like the stories about Bannon as the Svengali, or leaks against Jared and Ivanka, or planted stories that he blamed Bannon for. It was less than 10 weeks ago that Bannon appeared on the cover of TIME as "THE GREAT MANIPULATOR," with the inside story asking if he was "the Second Most Powerful Man in the World." 
 
 Axios AM is told that President Trump didn't like the stories about Bannon as the Svengali, or leaks against Jared and Ivanka, or planted stories that he blamed Bannon for. It was less than 10 weeks ago that Bannon appeared on the cover of TIME as "THE GREAT MANIPULATOR," with the inside story asking if he was "the Second Most Powerful Man in the World." Bannon's mistake: He did little to build alliances and a personal retinue within the White House, while his rivals did the opposite. So he wound up isolated in "West Wing Survivor.' 
 
 He did little to build alliances and a personal retinue within the White House, while his rivals did the opposite. So he wound up isolated in "West Wing Survivor.' The huge risk for Trump: The base (including Breitbart) remains very attached to Bannon, and would go crazy if he were axed. And does the president lose his psychic connection to the issue palette that helped put him in power? 
 
 The base (including Breitbart) remains very attached to Bannon, and would go crazy if he were axed. And does the president lose his psychic connection to the issue palette that helped put him in power? What it means: Swan points out that if Bannon goes, there's no one of similar status in the White House to push the nationalist agenda to Trump – and more centrist figures are already ascendant (Jivanka, Gary Cohn). Without Bannon's voice, this becomes a much more conventional White House. It would be an acute normalizing of the staff, although no one can normalize Trump. 
 
 2. Tweet du jour Maggie later added: "Trump loves the shiny new object, whether it's a thing or a person. Right now that shiny new object is Cohn." 
 
 3. A chance for Putin, Tillerson diplomacy in Moscow Rebecca Zisser / Axios Steve LeVine, a former foreign correspondent who joined Axios from Quartz this week, writes: "Putin knows that he has a problem in Syria — he wants to retain Russia's military presence there, but is not wedded to President Bashar al-Assad. Therefore, he will be looking for a face-saving way out of the current crisis." Get smart: Both presidents have extremely sober-minded senior aides who understand that the harsh exchange of rhetoric between the countries could escalate out of control. Same lead story in all Big 3 papers ... N.Y. Times: "White House Says Russia Is Engaged in Covering Up Syrians' Chemical Attack" ... WSJ: "U.S. Accuses Russia of Cover-Up" ... WashPost: "U.S. disputes Russia's claims." 
 
 4. Trump's talk big, act small White House Rebecca Zisser / Axios Visitors to Steve Bannon's West Wing office are often taken by his whiteboard, covered with promises from the campaign trail. Trump's chief strategist checks off tasks when they're accomplished, but there are some pledges on Bannon's whiteboard that nobody believes will be met — not in the first 100 days, and in some conspicuous cases, not ever. Read Axios' Jonathan Swan on "Trump's rhetoric vs reality": "The reality looks much smaller, and, as much as Trump would hate to admit it — conventional. Cowen's Chris Krueger raises possibility tax reform delayed to next year: "Base case remains tax relief in late Q4, though potential delay to Q1 18. Will need FY18 Budget to move taxes. So back to Square One on process, policy, and politics. Q1 17 a policy zero." Department of Close Calls ... Kansas City Star: "Republican Ron Estes will be the next congressman from the state of Kansas, but his victory Tuesday night did not come as easily as many expected in the deep-red state. GOP strategists warned in recent days that Democrat James Thompson, a civil rights attorney, was in striking distance ... in the special election to replace Mike Pompeo." 
 
 5. How Spicer's afternoon unraveled Sean Spicer at yesterday's briefing: "You had someone as despicable as Hitler who didn't even sink to using chemical weapons. So you have to, if you're Russia, ask yourself is this a country that you and a regime that you want to align yourself with? " Later question: "Sean, thanks. I just want to give you an opportunity to clarify something you said that seems to be gaining some traction right now. 'Hitler didn't even sink to the level of using chemical weapons.' What did you mean by that?" 
 
 "Sean, thanks. I just want to give you an opportunity to clarify something you said that seems to be gaining some traction right now. 'Hitler didn't even sink to the level of using chemical weapons.' What did you mean by that?" Spicer: "I think when you come to sarin gas, there was no — he was not using the gas on his own people the same way that Assad is doing, I mean, there was clearly — I understand your point, thank you. 
 
 "I think when you come to sarin gas, there was no — he was not using the gas on his own people the same way that Assad is doing, I mean, there was clearly — I understand your point, thank you. Q: "I'm just getting — " 
 
 "I'm just getting — " Spicer: "Thank you, I appreciate that. There was not — he brought them into the Holocaust center, I understand that. But I'm saying in the way that Assad used them, where he went into towns, dropped them down to innocent — into the middle of towns. It was brought —so the use of it — I appreciate the clarification there. That was not the intent." 
 
 "Thank you, I appreciate that. There was not — he brought them into the Holocaust center, I understand that. But I'm saying in the way that Assad used them, where he went into towns, dropped them down to innocent — into the middle of towns. It was brought —so the use of it — I appreciate the clarification there. That was not the intent." Emailed statement to the pool, 40 minutes later, "Clarification on statement from Press Briefing": "In no way was I trying to lessen the horrendous nature of the Holocaust. I was trying to draw a distinction of the tactic of using airplanes to drop chemical weapons on population centers. Any attack on innocent people is reprehensible and inexcusable." 
 
 40 minutes later, "Clarification on statement from Press Briefing": "In no way was I trying to lessen the horrendous nature of the Holocaust. I was trying to draw a distinction of the tactic of using airplanes to drop chemical weapons on population centers. Any attack on innocent people is reprehensible and inexcusable." Spicer, a few hours later, to CNN's Wolf Blitzer: "I was obviously trying to make a point about the heinous acts that Assad had made against his own people last week, using chemical weapons and gas. Frankly, I mistakenly made an inappropriate and insensitive reference to the Holocaust, for which, frankly, there is no comparison. And for that, I apologize. It was a mistake to do that." Spicer's job security! @NancyPelosi tweets: "@realDonaldTrump, it's time to fire @PressSec Sean Spicer." 
 
 6. The long view on Trump Rick Perlstein — who has written books on Goldwater, Nixon and Reagan — in N.Y. Times Magazine, "I Thought I Understood the American Right. Trump Proved Me Wrong. A historian of conservatism looks back at how he and his peers failed to anticipate the rise of the president": The 1960s and '70s New York in which Donald Trump came of age, as much as Klan-ridden Indiana in the 1920s or Barry Goldwater's Arizona in the 1950s, was at conservatism's cutting edge, setting the emotional tone for a politics of rage. ... The often-cynical negotiation between populist electioneering and plutocratic governance on the right has long been not so much a matter of policy as it has been a matter of show business. ... [T]he producers of "The Apprentice" carefully crafted a Trump character who was the quintessence of steely resolve and all-knowing mastery. 
 
 7. Drip, drip ... AP break at 5 a.m. ... "Records match some Ukraine ledger payments to ex-Trump aide," by Jack Gillum, Chad Day and Jeff Horowitz: "Last August, a handwritten ledger surfaced in Ukraine with dollar amounts and dates next to the name of Paul Manafort, who was then Donald Trump's campaign chairman. Ukrainian investigators called it evidence of off-the-books payments from a pro-Russian political party." "Now, financial records ... confirm that at least $1.2 million in payments listed in the ledger next to Manafort's name were actually received by his consulting firm in the United States. They include payments in 2007 and 2009, providing the first evidence that Manafort's firm received at least some money listed in the so-called Black Ledger." Why it matters: "Manafort and his spokesman, Jason Maloni, have maintained the ledger was fabricated and said no public evidence existed that Manafort or others received payments recorded in it." 
 
 8. Re-accommodating United's image, stock price "United faces more questions as dragged passenger hires high-powered attorney" — Chicago Tribune: "David Dao, the passenger at the center of the growing imbroglio, retained a high-powered Chicago personal injury lawyer, Thomas Demetrio. Dao was in a Chicago hospital undergoing treatment for his injuries ... [F]our [U.S.] senators sent several questions about the 'very disturbing' incident." Why it matters ... N.Y. Times front-pager, "Dragging of Passenger Sets Off a Crisis at United": "[T]he videos had already cast an unwelcome light not just on United, but on the airline industry's efforts to maximize profits. As companies push to make money from baggage fees, seat reservations and other services that were once included with a basic plane ticket, the videos added the potential for an even harsher indignity: sitting in a seat with a ticket and getting physically ejected from the airplane." 
 
 9. Will he be back? Amid an advertiser backlash prompted by accusations of harassment, Bill O'Reilly announced on last night's show that he's taking a vacation. A Fox News spokesperson confirmed to Axios AM that "O'Reilly is on a pre-planned vacation and he will return on April 24th." CNN's Dylan Byers says that per "O'Reilly spokesperson Mark Fabiani," the vacation is a family trip that was planned in October, including airline and hotel reservations. Dana Perino is scheduled to fill in for O'Reilly tonight, we're told. Gabe Sherman in New York mag: "Two highly-placed Fox News sources say 21st Century Fox CEO James Murdoch would like O'Reilly to be permanently taken off the air, while his father Rupert and older brother Lachlan are more inclined to keep him." This news from Monday's Times looks worrisome for Reilly: "21st Century Fox has enlisted the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison to investigate at least one accusation of sexual harassment against the Fox News host Bill O'Reilly. ... Wendy Walsh, a former guest on Mr. O'Reilly's show, ... called 21st Century Fox's anonymous hotline last week, prompting the investigation." Why it matters: "Paul Weiss is the same law firm that conducted an internal investigation into Roger Ailes."
– Now that he's out of the White House, lost his main financial backer, and been ousted from Breitbart News, what comes next for Steve Bannon? That remained very much unclear on Wednesday, although one thing was clarified: "Fox News will not be hiring Steve Bannon," a network spokesperson tells the Hill. That's not a huge surprise, notes Adweek, which points out a passage in the new book by Michael Wolff (a co-founder of Newser) that makes clear Bannon and Fox honcho Rupert Murdoch are not on great terms—"not least because Murdoch had Donald Trump's ear." Bannon reportedly doesn't think Murdoch understands US politics and told Trump as much. More on the Bannon fallout: The midterms: Bannon had vowed to lead a slate of anti-establishment candidates into office this year, "but it's unclear—and unlikely—that Bannon could continue to be a player in politics during this year's midterms without major donors behind him and after being disavowed by the president, writes Rosie Gray at the Atlantic. What's more, Bannon also has lost his radio show on SiriusXM, because the company's contract was with Breitbart, not Bannon. His mistake: At CNN, Chris Cillizza thinks Bannon made one huge mistake in regard to Trump, who brought him from the political fringe to the White House. "Somewhere along the way, Bannon forgot that Trump was the boss and he was the underling," writes Cillizza. "Everything that happened after that was sadly predictable."