‘Dramatic action’ vowed to plug leaks
WASHINGTON — Anthony Scaramucci, President Donald Trump’s new communications director, said on Sunday that one of his first tasks will be to halt leaks and that staff on his team would be fired if the leaks do not stop.
“If we don’t get the leaks stopped, I am a businessperson, and so I will take dramatic action to stop those leaks,” Scaramucci said on Fox News Sunday.
Scaramucci told CBS’S Face the Nation that leakers are “actually un-american” and that he would lead a team meeting Monday.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer resigned last week after the appointment of Scaramucci, a Wall Street financier and Republican fundraiser. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Spicer’s deputy, was promoted to press secretary.
Scaramucci was forced to deal with leaks on his first days on the job after The Washington Post reported last week that Trump and his legal team had examined presidential powers to pardon aides, family members and potentially himself. A special counsel is looking into any relationships or contacts between Trump campaign officials and Russia during the 2016 presidential election.
Trump wrote Saturday on Twitter that leaks against the administration are a “crime” and that he has “complete power to pardon.”
Scaramucci said Trump tweeted about the issue of pardons in reaction to the leak. Trump “doesn’t like the fact that he has a two-minute conversation in the Oval Office or in his study and that people are running out and leaking,” about the administration examining legal options of pardons, Scaramucci, who reports directly to Trump, said on CBS. “There’s no need for him to pardon anybody,” he said.