Bannon began by calling attention to his outsider status, thanking American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp, who was moderating the conversation, for “finally inviting me to CPAC.” (Bannon and Breitbart had in the past held an event called “The Uninvited” outside CPAC, featuring speakers who were not included in CPAC’s program, like anti-Muslim activist Frank Gaffney.)

He listed the administration’s top three priorities as national security and sovereignty, “economic nationalism,” and the “deconstruction of the administrative state.”

Priebus framed his relationship with Bannon as a microcosm of the Trump movement’s incorporation into the Republican Party, saying Trump “brought together the party and the conservative movement. And I've got to tell you, if the party and conservative movement are together, similar to Steve and I, it can't be stopped.”

Both Bannon and Priebus stayed on message when it came to another top priority of this White House: discrediting the media.

Asked what the biggest misconception had been about the administration so far, Priebus said “in regards to us two, I think the biggest misconception is everything that you’re reading.” He lamented the media’s coverage of Trump during the campaign, referring dismissively to media speculation about “what controversy in the primary is going to take down President Trump.” (As Republican National Committee chairman, Priebus reportedly encouraged Trump to drop out of the race after the release of the Access Hollywood tape in which Trump was recorded boasting about groping women.)

Bannon, as is his wont, went further, repeatedly calling the media the “opposition party,” a term he started using in an interview with The New York Times last month. He denounced the “corporatist, globalist media adamantly opposed to an economic nationalist agenda like Donald Trump has.”

“If you think they are giving you your country back without a fight, you are sadly mistaken,” Bannon said.

He complained that the press isn’t offering an accurate picture of Trump’s efforts. “If you look at the opposition party and how they portray the campaign, how they portrayed the transition, and how they are portraying the administration, it's always wrong,” Bannon said.

The media outlet that Bannon ran for years, Breitbart News, is a sponsor of CPAC this year, and its staff are scheduled to appear on several panels during the conference.

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