Profane interview upends Scaramucci’s conciliatory start

Newly announced White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci speaks to the media during the daily briefing at the White House on July 21. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI

July 28 (UPI) — A week that began with a conciliatory introductory press conference for new White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci spiraled into a profanity-laced tirade to a reporter lashing out at other advisers to President Donald Trump.

Scaramucci told reporters July 21 that Trump had assembled a “great team.” He promised a communications strategy that would enable Trump to more freely speak his mind and be his own spokesman to the nation. And he pledged a better relationship between the White House and the press corps.

He capped off his first press conference by blowing a kiss to reporters.

Scaramucci, a Wall Street investor by trade who has been one of Trump’s most ardent defenders on cable news, was brought in over the objections of some members of Trump’s inner circle. Scaramucci’s arrival prompted press secretary Sean Spicer to resign.

Deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was promoted to replace Spicer.

Reports quickly surfaced that Scaramucci’s hiring had been opposed by two other top Trump lieutenants, chief of staff Reince Priebus, a Spicer ally, and chief strategist Steve Bannon, though both men denied there was any friction.

Scaramucci continued to downplay internal disputes in a round of interviewson the Sunday morning news shows, instead promising to focus on ending the steady stream of damaging leaks from inside the administration.

Then Thursday, The New Yorker published an interview in which Scaramucci made numerous profane and vulgar comments about Priebus and Bannon.

Scaramucci contacted the magazine Wednesday night, initially to ask the reporter who had told him about a dinner attended by Trump, Scaramucci, Fox News host Sean Hannity and Fox executive Bill Shine. Because Priebus and Bannon were not invited, Scaramucci accused one of them of leaking the information.

“Reince is a [expletive] paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac,” Scaramucci told the New Yorker.

He went on to threaten to fire the entire White House communications department for leaking information to the media.

In publishing the exchange, The New Yorker said at no point did Scaramucci ask for the comments to be “off the record” or “on background.”

He went on to vent about a Politico story regarding his financial disclosure forms, which he also suspected were leaked by Priebus. Though the documents were publicly available, Scaramucci insisted the “leak” was a federal crime.

After the interview was published, Scaramucci tweeted a response “I made a mistake in trusting a reporter. It won’t happen again.”

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