Former Breitbart spokesman Kurt Bardella says his old boss Stephen Bannon, who yesterday took a leave of absence from the right-wing news site to serve as chief executive of Donald Trump's presidential campaign, is a “pathological liar” whose hiring signals a “dangerous" and “combative” turn for the campaign.

Bardella served as a spokesman for Breitbart from 2013 to early 2016. He cut ties after Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields accused then-Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski of grabbing her arm.

He said then he objected to Breitbart’s treatment of Fields, whose accounts of the incident were questioned by Breitbart CEO Bannon. She eventually left the website.

“It signals a dangerous and, even more so, combative and divisive turn,” Bardella told Media Matters about the hiring of Bannon by Trump. “It’s an indication that this campaign, as negative as it has been, is going to be even more so going forward. If the media thought that their relationship with the Trump campaign was challenging before this, it’s going to be 10 times worse now."

Indeed, Breitbart's editorial stance has been defined by its bigotry and sycophantic coverage of Donald Trump. 

Bardella also described Bannon as a “pathological liar who has a temperament that governs by bullying and intimidation and functions very much like a dictator at Breitbart.”

He said voters should take note of what this says about Trump’s judgement and approach as a leader.

“If anything, it is an indication of the types of people that Trump will listen to, and when people vote in November they need to measure that very seriously, that this is becoming an escalatingly dangerous situation for our country,” Bardella said. “And I don’t mean that in a hyperbolic sense. It is incredibly troubling that one of the people that is going to have the most influence with the would-be commander in chief is someone like that. If you thought Trump’s temperament and proclivity for saying outrageous things and saying things for shock value, that is just the tip of the iceberg when you have someone like Bannon running the show.”

He later added, “For those who didn’t enjoy working for Corey Lewandowski because of his temperament, Stephen Bannon makes Corey look like a golden doodle."

Asked what this will mean to the campaign and those who cover it, Bardella said, “Anyone who works for that campaign should be ready for regularly scheduled profanity-laced tirades against them.”