Good Thursday morning, I'm Jake Sherman, and welcome to your political playbook audio briefing,

sponsored by the Coalition for Affordable Prescription Drugs.

And I'm Anna Palmer.

The big news this morning is that Steve Bannon did two interviews in the last 24 hours or so.

The New York Times reports that Bannon said if Democrats want to fight over Confederate monuments and attack Trump as a bigot,

it's a fight the president would win.

Bannon also talked to a more unlikely outlet, the liberal American prospect.

Bannon told the prospect that the U.S. is at economic war with China.

He also said there is no military solution to North Korea's nuclear threat and that he's

changing out people at the State Department.

Okay, let's stop a minute in review.

This is very juicy stuff.

Bannon dumped on colleagues and contradicted the president on North Korea.

There are two positions you could have here.

Axios' Jonathan Swan has taken the Bannon position that he did not know he was giving an interview.

If you're aligned with Bannon in that camp, you believe he does not know the rules of journalism

and thought a left-wing reporter would keep his incendiary remarks private for the hell of it.

The reporter has said that he did not discuss this conversation being off the record with Bannon.

The alternate view is that Bannon is an incredibly savvy political operator who talks to reporters all the time,

and did these interviews for some reason. Yes, Bannon, the top

advisor to the president who harps on leaking, is constantly gabbing with journalists. He gave two

interviews over the course of roughly 24 hours. His job was in the line, then he found himself

...