The first rule of communications is: when you’re in a hole, stop digging.
It’s advice that former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci is gleefully disregarding as he continues to tell his side of being the shortest lived White House communications director in history.
First came his Late Show appearance and now he has given an interview to the New York Post’s Page Six (this guy is fearless) in which he renewed his attacks on Trump strategist Steve Bannon, calling him “insecure and paranoid” – although he did manage to resist the temptation to double down on his accusation that Bannon is an enthusiastic, wannabe auto-fellatio enthusiast.
The Mooch, a Wall Street financier who had no experience in professional communications, and appears to have qualified for the job through virtue of being a close personal friend of the president, lasted just 11 days in the role before he was fired by Trump.
He was kicked out after giving a now-infamous interview to the New Yorker in which he told a reporter: “I’m not Steve Bannon. I’m not trying to suck my own cock,” and branded former chief of staff Reince Priebus, “a fucking paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac.”
Initially Trump appeared to be delighted with the interview and was said to have authorized attacks on Priebus. Trump fired Priebus shortly after the interview, and installed John Kelly as chief of staff, then he fired Scaramucci.
Scaramucci conducted the interview with Page Six at Midtown restaurant Hunt & Fish Club, where he is a regular patron.
In the interview, he says, “Priebus and Bannon were probably responsible for 60 percent of the leaking at the White House.”
He says that Priebus and Bannon were “very clear they did not want me” in the job and he alleges that Bannon “specifically said that I had a ‘zero chance of being comms director’ and they were doing everything they could to get me out.”
The wheels truly came off Scaramucci's train following his interview to the New Yorker however: “Bannon and Priebus were working even harder that weekend after the interview came out to get rid of me,” says a mystified Mooch.
Scaramucci reserves his harshest criticism for Bannon, of whom he says: “He goes after people who do not share his views. They need cooperation in the White House right now, but Bannon is focused on his own manipulative game.”
As for future projects, the Mooch seems keen to monetize his notoriety, telling Page Six he is considering TV projects and book offers.
Will this mean more interviews? We very much hope it will.
