Donald Trump's chief White House strategist Steve Bannon said in 2013 that Sen. Joseph McCarthy was right in his 1950s campaign claiming widespread Communist infiltration into the United States government.

The Wisconsin senator's inquisitions of those he suspected of communist ties -- which eventually led to his censure by the United States Senate -- was a key moment in the Red Scare and led to the coining of the term "McCarthyism." 

Over the weekend, President Trump accused former President Obama of McCarthyism, making the unsubstantiated allegation the president wiretapped his phones in Trump Tower during the campaign. 

Bannon made his comments in July 2013 while interviewing conservative pundit Diane West about her book "American Betrayal: The Secret Assault on Our Nation's Character."