Steve Bannon 'swatted' again. The right-wing commentator was live-broadcasting his 'War Room' podcast when the police raided his home.

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Steve Bannon 'swatted' again. The right-wing commentator was live-broadcasting his 'War Room' podcast when the police raided his home.
Steve Bannon arriving at state Supreme Court in Manhattan for a 'We Build The Wall" charity scam case appearance.Seth Wenig/AP
  • Police raided Steve Bannon'd podcast studio in Washington, DC while he was live.
  • They responded to calls of a shooting at the location, police told Insider.
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Police raided the right-wing ideologue Steve Bannon's home and podcast studio in Washington, DC while he was live, responding to calls of a shooting at the location.

On Thursday, Bannon's "War Room" podcast audience heard a scuffle in the background before the host switched to an ad break.

Later in the show, broadcast from Bannon's home studio, he explained the noise. "We got 'swatted' in the middle of the show," he said, the Daily Mail Online reported.

Bannon, a former campaign chair and White House chief strategist for former President Donald Trump added: "I tell my team, 'Hey, can you knock it off? I got to concentrate here.' We're actually getting 'swatted.'"

As Insider previously reported, swatting, also known as "SWATing," is the act of sending armed police to an unsuspecting person's home under false pretenses.

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"At approximately 10:32 a.m., MPD responded to the 200 block of A Street, NE, for the report of a shooting. Preliminarily, this appears to be a false call. MPD searched the area, and nothing was found," a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police Department told Insider.

Streamers such as Bannon are prime targets for swatting. If the swatters get it right, they can have the maximum impact and the dubious pleasure of watching their victim deal with the unexpected police visit live.

Speaking on his podcast, Bannon said that this was not the first time that authorities had raided his home due to a false call.

"The criminals, and it is criminals, that continue to 'SWAT' us have to understand that the police are savvy to you and investigating it," he said.

"Swatting" became a federal crime in the United States in 2015, punishable by up to a lifetime in prison.

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"They're trying to make sure that something happens here, that one of the police officers gets concerned about what's going on and actually starts firing," Bannon said.

"Swatting" is rare, but it has, in some cases, resulted in injuries and deaths.

Last July, heavily armed police swarmed Bannon's home in Washington, DC following a false report that a man had shot someone inside, The Washington Post reported.

Following the latest incident, Bannon said the "swatting" calls are an attempt to silence him and said these callers "fear this audience."

"What they're going to try to do is take any voice, whether it's Donald Trump or Tucker Carlson or Steve Bannon of the 'War Room,' they're going to try to eliminate all those voices," Bannon said, the Mail Online reported.

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A February study by the Brookings Institute reviewing the top US political podcasts found that conservative-leaning shows are more likely to include misinformation. Bannon's "War Room," alone, according to the study, accounted for about 68% of conspiracy claims on political podcasts.

Bannon called it a "badge of honor," The New York Times reported.

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