Scaramucci: If it were up to me, Bannon would be gone
Short-lived White House communications director tells Stephen Colbert senior Trump adviser is a leaker, as was ex-chief of staff Reince Preibus
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
Short-lived White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci said that if it were up to him, top adviser Steve Bannon would be gone from US President Donald Trump’s administration, and suggested Bannon and fired chief of staff Reince Preibus were behind a number of leaks to the press.
“If it was up to me, he’d [Bannon] be gone. But it’s not up to me,” Scaramucci said.
“The Mooch,” a few weeks removed from his spectacular flameout following an expletive-laden conversation with a reporter, appeared Monday on CBS’ “Late Show” with Stephen Colbert. Colbert has seen his ratings soar since Trump’s inauguration with his relentless comedic attacks.
CBS released an excerpt of the interview.
TONIGHT: Anthony #TheMooch @Scaramucci is here and he's revealing who he would front-stab if he was still in the White House. #LSSC pic.twitter.com/sEljprdlH1
— The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) August 15, 2017
During the segment, Colbert showed a picture of Scaramucci and former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus glaring at each other.
Scaramucci said there was “no love lost” between the two and that their relationship was “adversarial.”
The former communications director, whose short tenure also prompted the departure of then-press secretary Sean Spicer, then confirmed that he believed Preibus was one of the leakers.
“I did,” Scaramucci says to Colbert, who asked, “you thought he was one of the leakers.”
Colbert then asked: “He’s gone, right? Who’s leaking now? Is it Steve Bannon?”
“I’ve said he was,” Scaramucci responds, adding that Bannon was “caught on tape saying he was [a leaker].”
Scaramucci said he and Priebus got along well and were “pretty good friends” when he was writing checks to the Republican National Committee, which Priebus once led.
Scaramucci said he knows Trump “as a compassionate person,” while reiterating that he thought the president should have spoken more harshly than he did initially of the white supremacists involved in the violent protest in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Of Trump’s frequent off-the-cuff remarks, Scaramucci said, “That’s him wearing his heart on his sleeve.”
The Times of Israel Community.