WAR BREAKS OUT AMONG TRUMP AIDES
New communications chief Scaramucci rants at ‘f**king’ chief of staff Priebus
WASHINGTON— President Donald Trump’s new communications director blasted smoldering tensions at the White House into a full-fledged conflagration Thursday, angrily daring Trump’s chief of staff to deny he’s a “leaker” and exposing West Wing back stabbing in language more suitable to a mobster movie than a seat of presidential stability.
In a pull-no-punches, impromptu CNN interview that he said was authorized by the president, Anthony Scaramucci went after chief of staff Reince Priebus in graphic terms. “The fish stinks from the head down,” he said. “I can tell you two fish that don’t stink, and that’s me and the president.”
Not even a week into his new job, Scaramucci accused unidentified senior officials of trying to sabotage him and committing a felony by leaking information. But the personal financial information that he said someone had “leaked” about him had simply been obtained through a public records request. Then in an interview published by The New Yorker late Thursday, an angry Scaramucci used an expletive to accuse Priebus of being a “f**king paranoid schizophrenic” and White House chief strategist Steve Bannon of trying to burnish his own reputation.
Threats
He also threatened to fire White House staffers who leaked about a dinner he had with the president.
“They’ll all be fired by me,” Scaramucci told the magazine. “I fired one guy the other day. I have three to four people I’ll fire tomorrow. I’ll get to the person who leaked that to you. Reince Priebus—if you want to leak something—he’ll be asked to resign very shortly.”
By day’s end Scaramucci sounded calmer, though not regretful.
The president’s senior counselor, Kellyanne Conway, had earlier speculated in a Fox News interview that unnamed forces were out to get Scaramucci, saying: “Somebody is trying to get in his way and scare him off.”
“There are leaks and then there are people using the press,” she said.
No one in the White House took up the cudgels for Priebus—including Priebus himself.
The past 24 hours provided the clearest evidence yet that Scaramucci and Trump, both brash New Yorkers, are cut from the same cloth. One of their shared techniques—publicly shaming members of their own team.
Icarus
Scaramucci’s goading of Priebus came as Trump continued to fume publicly and privately about his attorney general, Jeff Sessions. Trump has been critical of Sessions for recusing himself from the justice department investigation into whether the president’s campaign had anything to do with Russian interference in the election last fall.
Newt Gingrich, former Speaker and frequent outside adviser to Trump, said in an interview that Scaramucci’s attacks on Priebus are problematic.
“They’ve got to get this sorted out between the two of them, and it would be nice if they didn’t do it in public,” he said.
The bad blood stems from Scaramucci’s view that Priebus was insufficiently supportive of Trump and that Priebus persuaded the president to keep Scaramucci out of the White House.
Another rule of thumb in Trump’s inner circle is that it’s never wise to outshine the president.
Trump had reacted angrily when certain aides—including Bannon and, briefly, son-in-law Jared Kushner—received outsized media attention.
Ari Fleischer, who served as press secretary under George W. Bush, said “Ask Steve Bannon what happens if you get too much publicity and go too far.”
“It reminds me of Icarus flying too close to the sun,” he said.