Earlier this week, Trump Administration staff confirmed that Julia Hahn, a writer for Breitbart News, would be working as a special assistant to the President, in former Breitbart head Steve Bannon’s office.
Hahn, only 25, is no ordinary journalist. Hahn has, most recently, been an outspoken defender of Sen. Jeff Sessions, against claims that he is unworthy of a post heading the Department of Justice.
Prior to that, Hahn had been a crucial part of Breitbart’s attacks on Rep. Ryan. Hahn claimed, in her pieces that Ryan was a “double agent” secretly working for Hillary Clinton’s campaign. She declared that Ryan had “fled” from “grieving mothers” desperate to show him photos of their children killed by illegal immigrants (it seems Ryan was not in the state at the time), and penned an odd story claiming that Ryan’s children attend a school that “weeds out” Muslim students, despite opposing strict immigration bans (the school is a religious Catholic school).
In 2015, she co-authored a story with Bannon claiming that Ryan had “betrayed America.”
And even after Trump and Ryan had reportedly made peace, Hahn was rooting out Ryan’s underground deception, claiming that Congressional bigwigs, led by Ryan, were meeting in secret to undermine the Trump White House agenda.
When Bannon came on board the Trump Administration’s White House staff, political experts expected a rift to emerge almost immediately between the Oval Office, where Bannon now resides as a senior adviser to the President, and the Hill, where Bannon’s top target, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, holds court as the House Majority Leader.
Rumors swirled at the time that Bannon was seeking to “destroy” Ryan, and would use all available resources—including his staff of journalists—to do it.
But the reported faceoff never came, likely because Trump also picked up former RNC chair Reince Priebus, a Ryan ally, who seemed to smooth out any rifts. Ryan accepted and supported Trump’s agenda immediately, and Trump, who had resisted endorsing Ryan on the campaign trail, seemed comfortable with the Speaker.
Bannon, even, was reportedly working hand-in-hand with Ryan on tax reform legislation that the Administration plans to debut shortly.
But now, with Hahn’s hire, it seems Bannon wants to send a different message to Ryan: watch out.
Hahn’s hire, according to Heat Street sources close to congressional Republicans, has Ryan’s office definitely concerned, if not worried. Even if she’s in a low-level role in Bannon’s office, she can help provide Bannon with fodder needed to attack the Speaker, if he fails to fall in line with the President’s priorities—or Trump himself isn’t confident in their allegiance.
Even senior Republicans are unnerved. “This is obviously a provocative act and clearly an intentional act,” longtime GOP staffer Peter Wehner told the Washington Post. “Bannon is willing to napalm the bridges with congressional Republicans.”
Wehner added: “Bannon and Trump aren’t taken seriously even though Bannon and Trump are operating in a serious way and bringing on people who are going to work for their cause, not for conservatives.”
Ryan himself claimed, through spokespeople, that he “could not care less.” Aides close to him say that things seem to be going well with the White House right now, and that Trump is happy with the relationship he’s forged with the Republican leadership.
A few also seemed reassured by the fact that, of all the hires the administration has made, this is one of only a few that seem aggressive.
