WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Wednesday released a statement in response to comments that Stephen K. Bannon, the former White House chief strategist, made to Michael Wolff for his book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House. In the book, Mr. Bannon said that a meeting between members of the Trump team and a lawyer with Russian connections had been “treasonous.”

An excerpt from the book was published by New York Magazine.

The following statement was released from the White House, through the pool report.

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From press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders:

Statement from the President of the United States

Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my Presidency. When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind. Steve was a staffer who worked for me after I had already won the nomination by defeating seventeen candidates, often described as the most talented field ever assembled in the Republican party.

Now that he is on his own, Steve is learning that winning isn’t as easy as I make it look. Steve had very little to do with our historic victory, which was delivered by the forgotten men and women of this country. Yet Steve had everything to do with the loss of a Senate seat in Alabama held for more than thirty years by Republicans. Steve doesn’t represent my base—he’s only in it for himself.