Steve Bannon returns to his podcast to warn of election theft by Democrats | Steve Bannon

Steve Bannon, a longtime ally of Donald Trump who orchestrated his successful 2016 presidential campaign, was just hours out of federal prison when he resumed spreading baseless conspiracy theories and urging his supporters to ensure Democrats “can't steal the election.”

Bannon, who began serving a four-month prison sentence early Tuesday morning in Danbury, Connecticut, for violating a congressional subpoena as part of an investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, stirred up the heat with his first War Room podcast since Publicize the election unrest.

War Room has become an influential right-wing podcast in the US and in Republican circles. Bannon, 70, urged Trump supporters to go to the polls next week, telling listeners: “We will deliver the decisive blow to your progressive madness on November 5th and close the deal after that.”

Bannon cited his and Trump's false claims that the 2020 election was stolen and that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was behind his imprisonment. The spread of this widely debunked claim that Biden stole the election helped fuel the deadly insurrection in which Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

“She sent me to federal prison as a political prisoner to do two things, to make sure she tried to contain the power of this show, right, to contain the power of the show, and also to break me,” Bannon said . “Nancy Pelosi, take your number two pencil and write this down: This show has never been more powerful.”

“And second, the four months in federal prison not only didn’t break me, they gave me strength. “I am more energized and focused than I have ever been in my entire life, and just like in 2016 and 2020, I can see exactly what happened here and what we must do to defeat it,” Bannon also said.

He also attacked Marc Elias, a veteran election lawyer on Harris' legal team. “He literally laid out a plan for how they were going to steal the election,” he said.

Bannon's release came just a week before Trump and Kamala Harris face off on Election Day. The far-right provocateur couldn't have appeared at a better time for Trump.

In fact, Trump's third run for the White House is hardly a slam dunk for the ex-president, considering that the polls in the key swing states are close together. As Democrats intensify their campaign and continue to push Trump to end reproductive rights, he has also suffered political setbacks of his own making.

A rally at New York's Madison Square Garden Arena on Saturday sparked numerous comparisons to a 1939 Nazi event at the venue. Tony Hinchcliffe, a speaker at the rally, made racist comments about Puerto Ricans, who many say make up a growing population in the swing state of Pennsylvania.