President Donald Trump’s new communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, went nuclear on the beaucracy and infighting that muck up Washington, D.C. on Thursday.
His statements have many Trump supporters cheering that someone is willing to ‘tell it like it is’ — and liberal critics were so appalled, they have begun asking: Was he drunk!?
Scaramucci exploded the 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 backstabbing in language that’s too racy to print.
In a pull-no-punches, impromptu CNN interview that he said was authorized by the president, 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 senior officials of trying to sabotage him because they’ve committed a felony by leaking information, and that he wanted to “kill” these leakers.
Then in an expletive-laden interview published by The New Yorker late Thursday, an angry Scaramucci accused Priebus of being a “[expletive] paranoid schizophrenic.” He also used other colorful languge to make the point that he believes White House chief strategist Steve Bannon used Trump’s election win to burnish his own reputation.
He also threatened to fire White House staffers who leaked news 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.
I sometimes use colorful language. I will refrain in this arena but not give up the passionate fight for @realDonaldTrump's agenda. #MAGA
— Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) July 27, 2017
He also blamed the reporter, Ryan Lizza, for reporting the conversation that was supposedly off-the-record.
I made a mistake in trusting in a reporter. It won't happen again.
— Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) July 28, 2017
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders referred reporters to the first tweet.
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 to shiv each other in the ribs,” she warned.
Meanwhile, no one in the White House took up for Priebus — including Priebus himself. However, there is no word from the White House on whether Trump is not longer confident in Priebus.
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: telling it like it is.
Newt Gingrich, a former House speaker and frequent outside adviser to Trump, admitted in an interview that Scaramucci’s attacks on Priebus aren’t the best look.
“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,” Gingrich said.
Yet after Scaramucci’s call-in CNN performance, it will be tough to fix that relationship.
“I don’t know if this is repairable or not — that will be up to the president,” Scaramucci said on air. He compared their relationship to that of brothers who are “rough on each other.”
Brad Gerstman, a New York lobbyist and public relations executive, said it probably doesn’t matter to Trump that Scaramucci and Priebus don’t get along at times. Gerstman has done projects for the Trump Organization and is a neighbor and longtime friend of Scaramucci’s.
“In my experience, he’s of the belief that sometimes a little friction in the ranks is how you surface the best ideas,” Gerstman said of Trump.
The Associated Press contributed to this article