Steve Bannon leans into Trump's call for a new election, floating the idea of reinstating Trump through a 'contingent election'

Steve Bannon has spent the past two years pushing former President Donald Trump's baseless voter fraud claims. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

• Trump ally Steve Bannon floated a bizarre plan to try to reinstate the former president.
• Bannon said he was "never giving up," suggesting the idea of a "contingent election."
• Trump this week demanded to be reinstated, or for a new election to be called "immediately."

Steve Bannon, who served as a top adviser to former President Donald Trump, has leaned into the idea of reinstating Trump and calling a new election. 

Earlier this week, Trump issued a statement on Truth Social demanding to be reinstated or for a new election to be called "immediately" after news broke that Facebook had taken steps to limit the traffic for a controversial story about Hunter Biden's laptops before the 2020 election.

Speaking to former New York mayor and fellow Trump ally Rudy Giuliani on Tuesday during an episode of his "War Room: Pandemic" podcast, Bannon floated his bizarre plan to get Trump back in the White House.

"We don't need another national election. It's called a contingent election," he said, positing that the House of Representatives should choose the president. 

"Let's start the contingent election this week. Let's do it," Bannon added. "There should be another election." 

—David Edwards (@DavidEdwards) August 30, 2022

Bannon's idea to call a contingent election, however, would not work in this instance. Contingent elections are only held if a presidential candidate fails to achieve the 270 electoral vote threshold, after which Congress would have the power to elect the president, while the Senate would pick the vice president.

However, despite Trump's baseless claims of widespread voter fraud, President Joe Biden beat Trump and won the 2020 election, securing 270 electoral college votes. 

For his part, Bannon has spent the last two years helping to push Trump's baseless voter fraud claims and has even said that he would be willing to go to prison to support the former president.

In June, while attempting to get the criminal contempt of Congress charges against him dropped, Bannon raged outside a courthouse in Washington, D.C., claiming that the US would soon see a "populist uprising" of the MAGA-faithful and that the MAGA movement would govern for 100 years.

That same month, he also melted down on his podcast over the possibility of a Trump indictment, threatening to attempt to get "everybody in the DOJ" impeached should it happen.