The New Yorker‘s Ryan Lizza just published an explosive, profanity-laden account of a phone call he received from the new White House communications director, Anthony Scaramucci. The call was part of Scaramucci’s increasingly public campaign against alleged leakers in the West Wing.
āIs it an assistant to the President?ā he asked. I again told him I couldnāt say. āO.K., Iām going to fire every one of them, and then you havenāt protected anybody, so the entire place will be fired over the next two weeks.ā
I asked him why it was so important for the dinner to be kept a secret. Surely, I said, it would become public at some point. āIāve asked people not to leak things for a period of time and give me a honeymoon period,ā he said. āThey wonāt do it.ā He was getting more and more worked up, and he eventually convinced himself that Priebus was my source.
āTheyāll all be fired by me,ā he said. āI fired one guy the other day. I have three to four people Iāll fire tomorrow. Iāll get to the person who leaked that to you. Reince Priebusāif you want to leak somethingāheāll be asked to resign very shortly.ā The issue, he said, was that he believed Priebus had been worried about the dinner because he hadnāt been invited. āReince is a fucking paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac,ā Scaramucci said. He channelled Priebus as he spoke: ā āOh, 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.ā ā (Priebus did not respond to a request for comment.)
Scaramucci also had some colorful words about White House chief strategist Steve Bannon:
[He] also told me that, unlike other senior officials, he had no interest in media attention. āIām not Steve Bannon, Iām not trying to suck my own cock,ā he said, speaking of Trumpās chief strategist. āIām not trying to build my own brand off the fucking strength of the President. Iām here to serve the country.ā (Bannon declined to comment.)
Go read the whole thing because there is a lot more.
The White House did not immediately return an email from Mother Jones seeking comment.
Update 6:30pm ET: Anthony Scaramucci is #sorrynotsorry, basically:
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