As President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon warns he may target every incumbent Republican senator except Ted Cruz, his top recruit to take on Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, former Blackwater CEO and founder Erik Prince, confirmed Wednesday night he is actively considering a bid.
“All I’ll say is I’m exploring my options,” Prince said during an interview on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront.”
He continued, “I am a Wyoming resident. I’ve had a home there for 25 years, was a resident of Wyoming for many years, already back when I was on the SEAL team, so it is an option I’m looking at.”
Pressed by Burnett that his answer “sounds like a yes,” Prince repeated that “it’s an option I’m looking at.”
Prince added that he only talks to Bannon “once in a while, not often” because “he seems to be a pretty busy guy these days.” The interview comes just weeks after a source familiar with Bannon’s thinking confirmed to CNN that Bannon was looking to persuade Prince, the brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, to throw his hat in the ring. Bannon was successful last month in throwing his support behind Roy Moore in Alabama’s GOP Senate primary, defeating Trump’s preferred candidate, Sen. Luther Strange.
But Prince did make clear there is at least one issue where he and Trump are on the same page: the decline of ISIS.
Trump has recently said, “ISIS is now giving up” and, “We have done better in eight months of my presidency than the previous eight years against ISIS,” and Prince said he agreed, but also added a warning.
“The President is right, out of Iraq and Syria, where the primary tumor site is, where their caliphate is, remember, ISIS claims legitimacy because they have land, they have a caliphate, now that has largely been taken away in Iraq and Syria,” he said. “Now we just have to make sure they don’t set up shop in any other locations, be it North Africa, or South Asia, or East Africa, for that matter.”