CHARLESTON (CN) - Breitbart News CEO and former Trump strategist Steve Bannon got a hero's welcome in South Carolina Friday night stirring the crowd at the Citadel with a declaration that it's "time for us to get angry again."
The event was the annual "Patriot's Dinner" thrown by the student-run Citadel Republican Society, and while most of the seats to the sold out event were taken up by woolen dress uniform-clad cadets and their guests, all three Republican candidates for governor were in attendance bidding to align themselves with the man who has helped turn the GOP on its ear.
Gov. Henry McMaster reminded the crowd that he had nominated Trump for president at the Republican National Convention, and in a nod to the guest speaker, said, "Nobody did more to elect Donald Trump than Steve Bannon."
Lt. Gov. Kevin Bryant, who hopes to replace McMaster, sought to ally himself with Bannon philosophically, saying, "The majority of the people in this room, in this state and in this country agree that the entrenched, establishment interests of both parties are the major reason why people are fed up with their government."
But it was the third gubernatorial candidate, Mount Pleasant attorney Catherine Templeton, who got the plum assignment of introducing Bannon, calling him "a patriot, a fighter and a conservative who speaks for the rest of us."
And speak he did, although he did not offer any endorsement in the governor's race during remarks than ran just over 43 minutes.
Bannon in person is somewhat different from the image one holds of him in the mind. His voice is a little higher than expected, even at times soft-spoken. He appears a bit thinner than he does in photographs. And his preferred personal style of dress can best described as a take on rumpled informality.
"I wore my lucky jacket tonight," he said of the now-familiar brown Barbour Bedale bomber jacket he wore throughout the campaign and wore again Friday as he bounded to the podium at the Citadel's Holliday Alumni Center. "I knew you guys would appreciate the touch."
From that moment on, until he left the stage clutching the society's Nathan Hale award, he played to room like a well-polished entertainer, skewering Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump's critics, while also defending embattled GOP Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore.
"Until I see additional evidence on Judge Moore, I'm standing with him," Bannon said, in reference to a last week's Washington Post story that said Moore had sexual contact with a teenage girl in the 1970s when he was 32.
He was far less supportive of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who he tersely said should resign immediately.
And he chided the "mainstream media" for continuing to talk about Russian collusion.
"We couldn't collude with the RNC and the Trump campaign and the state of Pennsylvania," he said, inspiring guffaws from his audience.
But for Bannon, the appearance at the Citadel had the feel of his making a victory lap. In fact, it was his third such appearance in three days, his having also made speeches in McComb County, Michigan, and Manchester, New Hampshire last week.