U.S. President Donald Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon has reaffirmed his support for Trump and praised his eldest son as "both a patriot and a good man."
Bannon made the comments in a January 7 statement after a new book quoted him as describing a June 2016 meeting between Donald Trump Jr., Trump campaign aides, and a Russian lawyer as "treasonous" and "unpatriotic."
White House officials said Trump was furious at Bannon's comments in the book by author Michael Wolff, titled Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.
The president called the work a "phony" book and said it was full of inaccurate and false information.
But Bannon said in the statement that his description was aimed at Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who also attended the gathering, and not the president’s son.
He also said that he regretted waiting five days to say something, and called Wolff's reporting "inaccurate."
Bannon added that his support for Trump and his agenda was "unwavering."
The U.S. Senate, House of Representatives, and FBI are investigating alleged Russian interference in last year's presidential election, allegations denied by Moscow.
