Slick mover Scaramucci in, Spicer out
SHAKEUP AMID LOW APPROVAL RATINGS
>> WASHINGTON: White House press secretary Sean Spicer abruptly resigned on Friday over US President Donald Trump’s decision to tap a camera-ready financier to lead the beleaguered White House communications team. The departing spokesman said the president “could benefit from a clean slate” as he seeks to steady operations amid the Russia investigations and ahead of a healthcare showdown.
Mr Spicer, whose daily briefings once dominated cable television and delighted late-night comics, quit in protest over the hiring of Anthony Scaramucci as the new White House communications director. Mr Spicer denounced what he considered Mr Scaramucci’s lack of qualifications, according to people familiar with the situation.
As his first act on the job, Mr Scaramucci, a polished television commentator and Harvard Law graduate, announced from the White House briefing room that Sarah Huckabee Sanders would take Mr Spicer’s job. She had been Mr Spicer’s deputy.
The shakeup among the president spokespeople comes as Mr Trump is suffering from dismal approval ratings and struggling to advance his legislative proposals. As his effort to replace Barack Obama’s healthcare l aw crumbled this week, the president continued to vent frustration about the attention devoted to investigations of allegations of his election campaign’s connections to Russia. Mr Trump has blamed his own messengers — as well as the “fake news’’ media — for his woes.
Mr Trump, who watches the press briefings closely and believes he is his own best spokesman, saluted Mr Spicer’s “great ratings” on TV and said he was “grateful for Sean’s work on behalf of my administration and the American people”.
Mr Scaramucci, who said Mr Spicer had been gracious in showing him around on Friday, quickly took centre stage, parrying questions from reporters and praising Mr Trump in a 37-minute charm offensive. He flashed the television skills that Mr Trump has long valued: He commended Mr Trump’s political instincts and competitiveness, cracked a few self-deprecating jokes and battled with reporters who categorised the West Wing as dysfunctional, saying “there is a disconnect” between the media and the way the public sees the president.
“The president has really good karma and the world turns back to him,” Mr Scaramucci said.
Mr Spicer said during a brief phone conversation that he felt it would be best for Mr Scaramucci to build his own operation “and chart a new way forward’’. He tweeted that it had been an “honour’’ and “privilege’’ to serve Mr Trump and that he would remain in his post through August.
His decision to quit took advisers inside and outside the White House by surprise, according to people with knowledge of the decision. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the personnel matter publicly.
Mr Spicer’s daily press briefings had become must-see TV until recent weeks when he took a more behind-the-scenes role. Ms Sanders has largely taken over the briefings, turning them into off-camera events.
On Friday night, Mr Trump tweeted: “Sean Spicer is a wonderful person who took tremendous abuse from the Fake News Media — but his future is bright!’’
The White House had been looking for a new communications director for several weeks, but struggled to attract an experienced Republican hand. Mr Scaramucci, a former Democrat — like Mr Trump — who once called his new boss a “hack politician”, began seriously talking to the White House about the position this week, and the president offered him the job on Friday morning.
A person with knowledge of the decision said Mr Trump has been impressed by Mr Scaramucci’s defence of the White House on television and by his handling of a recent incident with CNN. The cable channel retracted a story about Mr Scaramucci and fired three journalists.
A shift i n briefing-room t one and style was i mmediate. Mr Scaramucci’s delivery was smooth and polished. Mr Spicer, who displayed a sometimes-fiery and occasionally flustered demeanor in on-camera exchanges with reporters, became widely known, particularly through an impersonation by Melissa McCarthy on NBC’s Saturday Night Live. Mr McCarthy’s signature move was to plow down reporters with the podium when exasperated by questioning.
Mr Spicer had long sought the strategic communications job for himself and had been managing that role along with his press secretary duties for nearly two months.
He had spent several years leading communications at the Republican National Committee before helping Mr Trump’s campaign in the general election. He is close to White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, the former committee chairman.
Mr Priebus said he supports Mr Scaramucci “100%”, despite reportedly trying to prevent the financier from getting multiple administration positions. Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter, and her husband, powerful senior aide Jared Kushner, had known Mr Scaramucci for years from New York and pushed for his hire.
Mr Scaramucci, a frequent visitor to Trump Tower during the transition, is expected to play a visible role as one of Mr Trump’s defenders on television. But Mr Spicer and other officials questioned his hiring as communications director ahead of the president’s push to overhaul the tax system and other policy issues.