Trash-talkin’ Trump aide rails against staff rivals
Newly appointed Scaramucci wages curse war to humiliate White House chief of staff
WASHINGTON— Sean Spicer endured all manner of humiliation as Donald Trump’s press secretary. But when Trump hired Anthony Scaramucci on Friday, Spicer quit immediately. We now know why. Scaramucci, the fast-talking financier Trump appointed last week as communications director, insulted two of his top administration colleagues in a shockingly vulgar Wednesday interview that exposed deep internal divisions and raised questions about his judgment, temperament and basic competence.
Trump himself has made a sport of violating traditional standards of political speech. But Scaramucci’s choice of words while speaking to a New Yorker journalist was next-level astonishing, the White House equivalent of new kid in school standing on a cafeteria table and shouting slurs at the senior class.
Trump’s team of political novices is known for vicious infighting the president is said to enjoy and encourage. Its battles, however, are usually conducted behind the scenes and via anonymous quotes. There is no modern precedent for the president’s chief communicator lambasting his colleagues on the record, especially in such lewd terms.
“Did you read that story? This guy’s f---ing out of his mind,” said Rick Tyler, a former communications director for Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and now an MSNBC analyst.
Scaramucci is a well-dressed, wellcoiffed Wall St. businessman with no experience in government but a Trumpimpressing proficiency in combat on cable television.
His good-natured public debut in the White House briefing room on Friday was appraised by U.S. journalists as “smooth” and “slick.”
Since then, however, he has done so many strange things in the course of his twin wars against leaks and embattled Trump chief of staff Reince Priebus that a media observer for the Washington Post described him as a “walking, talking, leak-busting disaster.”
With Trump’s apparent blessing, Scaramucci has waged a public campaign to humiliate Priebus into resigning. In his jaw-dropping, unsolicited Wednesday phone call to Ryan Lizza, the New Yorker’s Washington correspondent, Scaramucci said: “Reince is a f---ing paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac.”
Of Steve Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist, Scaramucci said: “I’m not Steve Bannon, I’m not trying to s--my own c--k.”
He also accused Priebus of having “c--k-blocked” him from a White House job for months, said he wanted to “f---ing kill all the leakers,” claimed that he had called the Department of Justice to accuse Priebus of a “felony,” referred to himself as “the Mooch,” and said he had to end the call to try to inflame Priebus via Twitter.
“Gotta start tweeting some s--- to make this guy crazy,” he said.
Scaramucci promised Thursday to tone down his vocabulary, but he offered no apologies.
“I sometimes use colorful language. I will refrain in this arena but not give up the passionate fight for @realDonaldTrump’s agenda,” he said on Twitter.
He had a bizarre 24 hours even before the New Yorker published the interview.
After he told Lizza he was going on Twitter to intentionally irk Priebus, he tweeted that he was planning to contact the FBI “in light of the leak of my financial disclosure info, which is a felony.”
In fact, no leak had occurred; the disclosure form was public information, available upon request. But Scaramucci told the New Yorker that he had indeed “called the FBI and the Department of Justice,” a remarkable breach of the traditional separation between the White House and justice officials.
He also tagged Priebus in the tweet, clearly suggesting he thought Priebus was the leaker. But when journalists correctly reported that this was the suggestion, he deleted the tweet and said their inference was wrong.
Then, on Thursday morning, he called in to a live CNN show to offer a third story. It went as follows: He was not suggesting Priebus was the leaker, but since journalists assumed he was suggesting this, Priebus probably was a leaker.
“So if Reince wants to explain that he’s not a leaker, let him do that,” he said.
On Tuesday, he told Politico that he was firing assistant press secretary Michael Short, a Priebus ally he had not yet personally informed. Then he falsely complained to reporters that the news he broke himself had been nefariously leaked.
“The fact that you guys know about it before he does really upsets me as a human being and as a Roman Catholic. I should have the opportunity if I have to let somebody go to let the person go in a very humane, dignified way,” he said. “Because he probably has a family, right?”
Scaramucci’s rant seized headlines as Senate Republicans were struggling to pass something resembling a repeal of some part of Obamacare. Some Democrats worried that the circus in Trump’s orbit would again distract from more important issues.
“Hey I’m as amazed/shocked/fascinated by the Mooch thing as the rest of us but health care bill is about to become law. Eyes on the ball,” Hawaii Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz said on Twitter.