Former congressman Michael Grimm, who served prison time for tax evasion, told Newsweek that Steve Bannon is "very excited" to work with him and help him in the 2018 midterms.
Grimm told Newsweek that he and the former chief strategist to President Donald Trump met Wednesday in D.C. at Breitbart headquarters.
"We're definitely going to work together. … And I can say that Steve Bannon was very excited about it," Grimm told Newsweek. "He's not the type of guy that shows emotion easily, but I could tell he was definitely excited."
Grimm, who resigned his congressional seat after pleading guilty in 2014 — subsequently getting sentenced to eight months in prison in 2015 — announced earlier this week his plan to take on incumbent Dan Donovan in New York.
Donovan won the special election to fill the seat vacated by Grimm and has a mixed bag of supporting Trump's policies. Donovan has sided with Trump on immigration but rebuffed the president on law enforcement in New York City and Planned Parenthood, among others.
But Grimm, saying he's "matured" and "tempered" since the conviction, wants to frame Donovan, a former district attorney, as being anti-Trump.
"I believe that's how Mr. Bannon sees it too — that Danny has been, you know, up until now, until I was running, he's been against the president's agenda," Grimm told Newsweek. "I really believe that if we do not help President Trump succeed, then we're going to pass a tipping point of no return, and we're going to lose the greatest country in the world."
Bannon declined comment about the meeting with Grimm, Newsweek reported.
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