After a slick, seemingly controversy free debut last Friday the honeymoon period for newly appointment White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci has come to an abrupt end.
Less than 24 hours after suggesting White House chief of staff Reince Priebus was the one responsible for a leaky executive branch, Scaramucci verbally assaulted Priebus in an expletive laden on the record interview with Ryan Lizza of The New Yorker. Among the things Scaramucci called Priebus – aside from his “brother” – was a “fucking paranoid schizophrenic” and a “paranoiac”.
“They’ll all be fired by me,” he said. “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.” The issue, he said, was that he believed Priebus had been worried about the dinner because he hadn’t been invited. “Reince is a fucking paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac,” Scaramucci said. He channelled Priebus as he spoke: “ ‘Oh, Bill Shine is coming in. Let me leak the fucking thing and see if I can cock-block these people the way I cock-blocked Scaramucci for six months.’ ” (Priebus did not respond to a request for comment.)
Scaramucci’s berating of Priebus came after the communications director pressed Lizza for the individuals name who leaked a White House dinner meeting to the reporter. After Lizza refused to give up his source, Scaramucci – or “Mooch” as he referred to himself as in third person like some raging lunatic – eventually came to the conclusion that it was Priebus who leaked the dinner before threatening to fire “everyone” within the next two weeks. “Everyone” is assumed to be each and every person involved with the White House communications team.
“Is it an assistant to the President?” he asked. I again told him I couldn’t say. “O.K., I’m going to fire every one of them, and then you haven’t protected anybody, so the entire place will be fired over the next two weeks.”
Additionally, in an unrelated report from The Daily Beast, Scarammuci whose had plenty of clashes with Priebus in the past apparently has referred to the former RNC chair as “Reince Penis”. And according to a White House source, Scaramucci got the “green light” from Trump himself to go after Priebus.
"Two sources who have known Scaramucci for years say that he has privately called Priebus 'Reince Penis'."https://t.co/YcyogbfVKv
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 27, 2017
Priebus however wasn’t the only White House staffer who Scaramucci took on.
According to Lizza’s write-up, White House chief strategist Steve Bannon also caught the ire of the communications director saying he (Scaramucci) isn’t trying to “suck his own cock” something I guess Bannon tries to do in the White House?
Scaramucci also told me that, unlike other senior officials, he had no interest in media attention. “I’m not Steve Bannon, I’m not trying to suck my own cock,” he said, speaking of Trump’s chief strategist. “I’m not trying to build my own brand off the fucking strength of the President. I’m here to serve the country.” (Bannon declined to comment.)
So in one week Scaramucci has done an excellent job at isolating himself as well as others drawing a fine line in the sand between the Washington contingent and the New York. Not that Steve Bannon is a veteran of Washington or an insider for the matter, however Priebus was suppose to be the one that would help ring in Donald Trump potentially driving him to a more presidential-like persona. Instead we’ve seen the White House D.C. faction getting offed whether it was former press secretary Sean Spicer last week, White House press aide Michael Short – who resigned just the other day – and potentially Priebus who Scaramucci indicated would be resigning as well.
via The New Yorker:
He reiterated that Priebus would resign soon, and he noted that he told Trump that he expected Priebus to launch a campaign against him. “He didn’t get the hint that I was reporting directly to the President,” he said. “And I said to the President here are the four or five things that he will do to me.” His list of allegations included leaking the Hannity dinner and the details from his financial-disclosure form.
Effectively, Scaramucci has become more than just the White House communications director. He may be the most powerful figure inside the executive branch aside from the President and Vice President.
It’s also clear what’s happening here.
Much like we’ve seen with Trump publicly castrating attorney general Jeff Sessions – once again on Twitter – Scaramucci appears to be doing the President’s bidding when it comes to Priebus. However the President could very well find himself up shits creek without a paddle if he continues to fuck with the Republican establishment. Despite the election being over, Trump still needs the establishment and those career GOPers sitting in the House and Senate.
As Robert Mueller continues his investigation into the Trump campaign’s alleged ties to Russia, the President will still need friends on Capital Hill to help push his agenda and potentially put off any talk of impeachment.
UPDATE:
I made a mistake in trusting in a reporter. It won't happen again.
— Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) July 28, 2017
