Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Spicer resigns as press secretary; New York financier replaces him
President names communications chief, shuffles legal team
Frequent Trump defender Anthony Scaramucci now communications director.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s wellknown but increasingly sidelined press secretary, Sean Spicer, resigned abruptly Friday, as the beleaguered president shuffled his legal and communications teams amid mounting investigations and legislative troubles.
Spicer told the president of his decision Friday morning after learning that Trump hired Anthony Scaramucci, a New York financier and frequent Trump defender on Fox News, as communications director.
Scaramucci then announced, in his debut appearance in the White House briefing room, that Sarah Huckabee Sanders will take over as press secretary, making official the job she has been doing for weeks as Spicer has been relegated to the background.
Spicer will leave the White House in August, he wrote on Twitter, adding that it has been “an honor & a privilege to serve” Trump.
The changes were part of Trump’s broader staff shake-up at the six-month mark of his presidency, reflecting the president’s growing frustration with media coverage of the FBI’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion with his campaign.
He has complained for months about what he sees as the inability of his communications team to counter the steady drip of damaging headlines — though often Trump provokes such coverage by his own actions or remarks.
The president also reorganized his legal team in recent days. His longtime personal attorney, Marc Kasowitz, will have a reduced role; he publicly defended Trump’s firing of FBI director James Comey in early May, but reportedly he is not eligible for a security clearance likely to be needed to handle material related to the Russia probe.
Trump has hired longtime Washington defense attorneys John Dowd and Ty Cobb to join lawyer Jay Sekulow. Dowd will lead the legal team for the Russia investigation.
The recently hired spokesman for the legal team, Mark Corallo, reportedly resigned Friday. A former spokesman at the Justice Department during the George W. Bush administration, Corallo was said to be uncomfortable with criticism from Trump and his associates of current and former department officials Corallo knew at Justice who are now involved in the Russia investigation.
Trump’s legal team is collecting information on Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller and the investigators he has hired, including their party affiliations and political donations, in an effort to paint Mueller’s team as political hacks with conflicts of interest.
“It’s relevant that people know what their motivations are. That is not an attack on the team,” White House adviser Kellyanne Conway said Friday on Fox News.
Lawyers for Trump also are reportedly examining what specific power the president has to pardon people who might be charged by the special counsel, including himself.
Spicer’s departure had been the subject of speculation for months.
His combative jousts with reporters and misstatement of facts — like his insistence on Trump’s first full day in office that the inauguration had set attendance records — became fodder for a popular spoof on “Saturday Night Live,” starring Melissa McCarthy in male drag, but also eroded his credibility.
Trump has told close advisers that Spicer had been beaten into submission by the press, according to a person close to Trump, and no longer was able to punch back forcefully enough.
Spicer hadn’t held a press briefing for a month, since June 23, while Sanders, mostly off camera, has largely taken over the task.
Meanwhile, Scaramucci, a frequent pro-Trump presence on cable television, was floated as someone who could jab and parry more effectively with the media.
Scaramucci, who worked on Trump’s transition, had sold his stake in SkyBridge Capital, which manages hedge funds, in hopes of landing a White House job.
While Trump has admired Scaramucci’s defense of him on television, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and strategist Steve Bannon were both said to oppose Scaramucci’s appointment. Spicer was an ally of Priebus, having worked for him when Priebus headed the Republican National Committee.
To explain away the tension with Priebus, Scaramucci said they are “like brothers” and sometimes “rough each other up.”
But Scaramucci also made clear that he would have his own power center in the White House, telling reporters that he would report directly to the president, not Priebus — at Trump’s instruction.
Trump tends to respect people with wealth and business experience, so Scaramucci is likely to garner more respect from Trump than Spicer or Priebus have.
Scaramucci told reporters that Spicer’s departure is “obviously a difficult situation.”
“I hope he goes on to make a tremendous amount of money,” Scaramucci said.
When asked what he would do to “right the ship” at the White House, Scaramucci said the administration is going in the right direction — he will be focused on improving the communications strategy.
To that end, he also signaled he will be Trump’s full-throated cheerleader.
He called the president a winner, with perhaps the greatest political instincts in history, and a man of great karma.
But amid his adulatory comments, Scaramucci also was forced by reporters to answer for past, biting criticisms of Trump, which were quickly being disseminated again on Twitter by critics.
He apologized for them, looking into cameras for the televised briefing as if talking to the president himself — knowing Trump often watches.