White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci has launched an expletive-ridden tirade against White House rivals. After railing against Reince Priebus and Steve Bannon, he said he would fire all his own staff.
Image: Reuters/J. Ernst
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Who's who in the Anthony Scaramucci White House spat?
The White House is in a spin over new communications director Anthony Scaramucci. His appointment ruffled plenty of feathers and now he has fired a salvo of insults at other members of US President Donald Trump's staff.
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Communications director Anthony Scaramucci
Trump's new communications director caused trouble before he even started his job on July 21. Press secretary Sean Spicer was reportedly upset about Scaramucci's hiring - Spicer had handled many directoral responsibilities himself - and resigned as a result. Scaramucci, who is reportedly close to the president, insulted other staffers in a phone call to a journalist.
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Chief of staff Reince Priebus
The biggest target of Scaramucci's attack: Reince Priebus. Trump's chief of staff is known to have a fraught relationship with the new communications director and was reportedly among those West Wing staffers who opposed the hire. Scaramucci called Priebus a "f***ing paranoid schizophrenic" in a conversation with a reporter from the New Yorker and said Priebus would be forced to resign.
Image: Reuters/M. Segar
Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president
In the current West Wing quarrel, Kellyanne Conway, one of Trump's most important advisers, is on Scaramucci's side. In an interview with conservative TV channel Fox News, she talked about him having somewhat of a hard time and said: "Somebody is trying to get in his way and scare him off." Conway herself is infamous for coming up with the phrase "alternative facts."
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/C. Kaster
White House chief strategist Steve Bannon
Trump's chief strategist Steve Bannon has not had a stellar year. In April, he was banned from the National Security Council. Scaramucci laid into him saying unlike Bannon he was not trying "to suck my own c**k," accusing him of using Trump to boost his own image. "I'm not trying to build my own brand off the f****g strength of the president. I'm here to serve the country."
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/E. Vucci
Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders
After Sean Spicer formally steps down from his post in August, Sarah Huckabee Sanders will take over as press secretary. In a Fox News interview, she said Scaramucci was "very passionate about the president and his agenda and I think he may have let that get the best of him," adding she hoped the "focused" team would "reel some of their language in."
Image: picture alliance/newscom/P. Benic
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President Donald Trump's new communications director has laid bare internal feuding in the White House, unleashing a tirade of foul language at top officials in the West Wing in an interview published on Thursday.
Anthony Scaramucci called White House chief of staff Reince Priebus a "f*****g paranoid schizophrenic" and accused him of being behind leaks that threatened to undermine the Trump presidency.
The comments were published in the New Yorker after the new communications director on Wednesday night called a journalist who reported that Scaramucci was having dinner with Trump, the first lady, former Fox News executive Bill Shine and Sean Hannity.
Unlike Steve Bannon, Scaramucci said he was not trying "to suck my own c**k," accusing the White House chief strategist of trying to use Trump to boost his own image. "I'm not trying to build my own brand off the f****g strength of the president. I'm here to serve the country," the communications director said.
Scaramucci demanded that New Yorker journalist Ryan Lizza tell him the name of person who leaked information about the dinner, saying that he would fire the entire White House communications staff to root out leaks.
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He then accused Priebus of being behind the leaks and suggested the chief of staff would be leaving the White House soon.
President Trump has been trying to stop leaks within his administration.
The New Yorker's Lizza said Scaramucci failed to say that the telephone conversation was off the record.
Scaramucci on Wednesday wrote in a tweet that has since been deleted that he would get the FBI and Justice Department to investigate the leaks. In the tweet, Scaramucci seemed to imply that Priebus was behind a report in Politico about his finances.
It later emerged that his financial record forms were accessed by a Politico reporter through a public records request.
Scaramucci later tweeted that he added Priebus to the deleted tweet to say that he was helping end leaks within the White House.
Scaramucci, a millionaire New York financier, arrived at the White House only last week when Sean Spicer resigned as communications director.
There is reportedly bad blood between Scaramucci and Priebus after the chief of staff blocked Scaramucci from taking up a position in the new administration earlier this year.
Scaramucci later tweeted he regretted using "colorful language."
He also added that he made a mistake trusting a reporter.
