Gingrich: WH soap opera drowns Trump's accomplishments
Former House Speaker on whether Trump and Sessions can continue working together and the alleged rift in the White House between Anthony Scaramucci and Reince Priebus and Scaramucci's explosive 'New Yorker' interview #Tucker
Newly appointed White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci is using vulgar language to lash out against Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and make fun of Senior Adviser Steve Bannon in a new interview.
In a story published by the New Yorker on Thursday evening, Scaramucci asks writer Ryan Lizza to reveal who leaked the details of a dinner the president attended to him. He goes on to accuse Priebus of leaking.
“Reince is a f---ing paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac,” Scaramucci said during a Wednesday night phone call.
White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus attends a joint news conference between U.S. President Donald Trump and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 12, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria - RTX35BKQ (REUTERS)
He also told Lizza: “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.”
Impersonating Priebus, Scaramucci told Lizza: “Let me leak the f---ing thing and see if I can c----block these people the way I c----blocked Scaramucci for six months.”
Scaramucci also claimed that unlike Bannon, he isn’t interested in boosting his profile in the media.
“I’m not Steve Bannon, I’m not trying to suck my own c---,” he said. “I’m not trying to build my own brand off the f---ing strength of the president. I’m here to serve the country.”
In this Aug. 20, 2016, photo, Stephen Bannon, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's campaign chairman, attends Trump's Hispanic advisory roundtable meeting in New York. An ex-wife of Donald Trump's new campaign CEO, Stephen Bannon, said Bannon made anti-Semitic remarks when the two battled over sending their daughters to private school nearly a decade ago, according to court papers reviewed Friday, Aug. 26, by The Associated Press. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) (AP)
He also accused Priebus of leaking his publicly-available financial disclosure form to the press.
“I’ve called the FBI and the Department of Justice,” Scaramucci said.
Scaramucci told Lizza he believed Priebus would resign soon and vowed to keep cracking down on leakers.
“What I want to do is I want to f---ing kill all the leakers and I want to get the president’s agenda on track so we can succeed for the American people,” he said.
Lizza said Scaramucci, speaking of Priebus, ended the phone call by saying he needed to go so he could “start tweeting some s--- to make this guy crazy.”
Scaramucci didn’t deny the comments in a Thursday tweet.
“I sometimes use colorful language,” he said. “I will refrain in this arena but not give up the passionate fight for @realDonaldTrump's agenda.”
Later on Thursday Scaramucci tweeted that he "made a mistake in trusting in a reporter. It won't happen again."
"It’s not a matter of trust," Lizza said on CNN, "it’s a matter of we as journalists trying to explain who these people are to the American people and when you do an on the record interview with someone, its standard operating procedure that the interview gets reported."
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, speaking to reporters at the White House after the story was released, wouldn’t say if President Trump had read the story.
Appearing on Fox News’ “The Story with Martha MacCallum” on Thursday night, Sanders then defended Scaramucci by saying he gets passionate about his job.
“This is a guy who sometimes uses colorful – and in many circles, probably not appropriate – language. And he’s very passionate about the president, the president’s agenda and I think he may have let that get the best of him in that conversation,” she said.
But the comments have spooked some of his co-workers. Speaking to Fox News, one White House official expressed concern.
“This is getting out of hand. I am honestly getting concerned for my safety in the office tomorrow. This type of behavior is unbelievable. Working in the White House and something like that is said, it is a disgrace,” the official said.
Fox News’ Serafin Gomez contributed to this report.
