BRIAN STELTER (HOST): We could call it a political merger, “Trumpbart.” This week, GOP pollster Kellyanne Conway became the new face of Donald Trump’s campaign, appearing all across TV. But it's Steve Bannon who may be the new inner voice of the campaign. Until Tuesday, he was the executive chairman of the far-right website Breitbart. On Wednesday, he became the Trump campaign’s CEO.

Now, Bannon doesn’t have campaign experience, but he has a lot of media experience. He's a man who loves a fight, he's been building up Breitbart to become a Fox News competitor, and now that he's aligned with Trump, his appointment seems likely to shape the rest of the election season. The Hillary Clinton campaign is already bracing for a scorched-earth strategy. So let’s get insight on this from two experts all about Breitbart, who know Bannon. First, Kurt Bardella, the former spokesperson for Breitbart, who resigned earlier this year. He’s the president and CEO of Endeavor Strategies. And Ken Stern, a former CEO of NPR, who wrote this exclusive profile of Bannon for VanityFair.com’s The Hive website.

[…]

STELTER: Kurt, I know you have strong feelings about Breitbart, you resigned, you were disgusted by how they treated Michelle Fields earlier this year when Fields said she was assaulted by then-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. How would you describe Breitbart.com to viewers of our program who don’t see this site every day?

KURT BARDELLA: I think you look at it as the de facto SuperPAC of Donald Trump. And really for the last year, year and a half in the Republican primary, they have been the rapid response arm of the Trump campaign. Anytime anything --

STELTER: Rapid response arm of the Trump campaign. Let's underscore that. You're saying it's even, what, further to the right than Fox News?

BARDELLA: Oh my gosh, it’s not even a -- they make Fox News look like MSNBC. I think that any time that there was a controversy, something that Trump may have said that was generating headlines, Breitbart was the first destination that you could go to to see in real time what the Trump line of thinking was. It was the most sympathetic voice for Trump, and anytime that anyone in the mainstream media would in any way, characterize, or attack, or question Trump’s tactics, they were the place that you could go to for that sympathetic ear for Trump.

STELTER: I would have loved to have Breitbart’s editor on the program this morning. We did invite him, and he declined. Bannon, for his part, is not doing any interviews yet. But Ken, since you know him, you were the former CEO of NPR, does it disturb you to have, as Kurt’s describing, a rapid response arm for the Trump campaign that is a popular right-wing website? Is it inappropriate to have that kind of merger happening?

KEN STERN: So, look, that merger happened, it is “Trumpbart,” as people have known it. I actually don't think of Breitbart as a news organization. It’s a media organization, but mostly it’s a political movement. And it’s a political movement that is largely aimed at taking over the Republican Party. So, I think a lot about what's going on is -- you know, they're not -- they're a competitor of Fox News, but they hate Fox News, they hate the Republican establishment, that's really what this is about. So it's a political movement, and it's an alignment of two political figures, Trump and Bannon, to try to permanentize that political movement in a meaningful way.

Previously:

Breitbart News Chief Now In Command Of Trump Campaign

How Breitbart News Became The Official Propaganda Arm Of The Trump Campaign

“Insanity”: Media Appalled After Trump Campaign Hires Breitbart Executive And Political Commentator