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Jan. 9 (UPI) -- Former presidential adviser Steve Bannon stepped down from his role as executive chairman of Breitbart, the conservative website announced Tuesday. Bannon was a founding board member of the site, and when founder Andrew Breitbart died in 2012, Bannon became executive chairman of the company.
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"I'm proud of what the Breitbart team has accomplished in so short a period of time in building out a world-class news platform," Bannon said in a statement published on the site.
The company said it would work to plan a "smooth and orderly transition." The statement did not give a reason for Bannon's departure.
"Steve is a valued part of our legacy, and we will always be grateful for his contributions, and what he has helped us to accomplish," Breitbart CEO Larry Solov said.
As part of the move, Bannon also will no longer host a show on SiriusXM.
"Breitbart News has decided to end its relationship with Stephen K. Bannon, therefore he will no longer host on SiriusXM since our programming agreement is with Breitbart News," the satellite radio company said in a statement.
The move comes days after Bannon reversed course from comments he made about Donald Trump Jr. in a new book about the Trump presidency by Michael Wolff.
Bannon sent a statement to The New York Times on Sunday, praising President Donald Trump's administration. The book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, quotes numerous White House officials speculating on the president's mental health and qualifications for the position. In it, by Bannon is quoted as saying Trump Jr.'s 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer was "treasonous" and "unpatriotic."
Bannon also said in the book that the president had "lost his stuff." He added that special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of ties between the Trump campaign and Russia largely involve money laundering and loans by Deutsche Bank to Trump Jr.
The statement on Sunday called Trump Jr. "both a patriot and a good man," and although it did not contain an apology, Bannon affirmed that "My support is also unwavering for the president and his agenda." He added that the reference to treason was directed at another former Trump adviser, Paul Manafort.
On Monday, Wolff told MSNBC that in Bannon's comments to him, "Don Jr.'s name come up again and again" and that Bannon's remarks regarding treason and lack of patriotism were "not directed at Manafort, they were directed directly at Don Jr."
Bannon's statement to the Times on Sunday came hours after Stephen Miller, another former Trump White House adviser, was critical of Bannon in an appearance on CNN. Miller called Bannon's comments in the book "out of touch with reality," "vindictive" and "grotesque."
Trump also has been critical of the book, saying in a weekend Twitter statement, "I've had to put up with the Fake News from the first day I announced that I would be running for President. Now I have to put up with a Fake Book, written by a totally discredited author."
Ed Adamczyk contributed to this report.
