Sponsored Content
« More on Fusion GPS: Veteran Washington Reporter Says Media Won't Report on Fusion GPS' Activities as a Major "Source" of "News," Because If You Dug Down Into It and Saw Fusion GPS' Emails With the Media, "It will look like an apocalypse" | Main | McMaster Fires Another Iran Hawk, While Doing His Best to Protect Obama Holdovers »
July 27, 2017

Scaramucci to Reporter: Tell Me Who's Leaking, Or I'll Just Fire Everyone

I'm not sure if this is crazy or if this is necessary, or if it's a bit of both.

“Who leaked that to you?” he asked. I said I couldn’t give him that information. He responded by threatening to fire the entire White House communications staff. “What I’m going to do is, I will eliminate everyone in the comms team and we’ll start over,” he said. I laughed, not sure if he really believed that such a threat would convince a journalist to reveal a source. He continued to press me and complain about the staff he’s inherited in his new job. “I ask these guys not to leak anything and they can’t help themselves,” he said. “You’re an American citizen, this is a major catastrophe for the American country. So I’m asking you as an American patriot to give me a sense of who leaked it.”

In Scaramucci’s view, the fact that word of the dinner had reached a reporter was evidence that his rivals in the West Wing, particularly Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff, were plotting against him. ...

[H]e has become obsessed with leaks and threatened to fire staffers if he discovers that they have given unauthorized information to reporters. Michael Short, a White House press aide considered close to Priebus, resigned on Tuesday after Scaramucci publicly spoke about firing him. Meanwhile, several damaging stories about Scaramucci have appeared in the press, and he blamed Priebus for most of them. Now, he wanted to know whom I had been talking to about his dinner with the President. Scaramucci, who initiated the call, did not ask for the conversation to be off the record or on background.

“Is it an assistant to the President?” he asked. I again told him I couldn’t say.

“O.K., I’m going to fire every one of them, and then you haven’t protected anybody, so the entire place will be fired over the next two weeks.”

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. “I’ve asked people not to leak things for a period of time and give me a honeymoon period,” he said. “They won’t do it.” He was getting more and more worked up, and he eventually convinced himself that Priebus was my source.

Okay, then he turns to Reince Priebus, and Steve Bannon.

“They’ll all be fired by me,” he said. “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.” The issue, he said, was that he believed Priebus had been worried about the dinner because he hadn’t been invited. “Reince is a fucking paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac,” Scaramucci said.

...

Scaramucci also told me that, unlike other senior officials, he had no interest in media attention. “I’m not Steve Bannon, I’m not trying to suck my own cock,” he said, speaking of Trump’s chief strategist. “I’m not trying to build my own brand off the fucking strength of the President. I’m here to serve the country.”

Okay, definitely kind of crazy. Still, maybe the leakers need to know a crazy guys is just itching to fire them.


digg this
posted by Ace at 07:10 PM

| Access Comments




Recent Comments
CrotchetyOldJarhead: "Posted by: FenelonSpoke at June 07, 2023 11:55 AM ..."

Legion of Boom: "So Comcast ‘wins’? Ugh. That really ta ..."

Additional Blond Agent, STEM Guy[/i]: "[i]Talking about streaming, word is Amazon may get ..."

Napoleon XIV[/i][/b][/s][/u]: "/sock no more ..."

"Retard" and "fag" are crucial parts of the American lexicon: "Being GenX, "retard" rolls quite naturally off the ..."

Ted Williams: "Man, I wish I knew the source of the "Walt Disney' ..."

polynikes: "You could just click on a link when someone posts ..."

insurgens ad opus : "I can't wait to cancel Hulu after Disney is forced ..."

Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea, Radioactive Knight: "to see who would win the dick-punching contest. ..."

Xipe Totec: "Showing off your nipples is a guaranteed way to ge ..."

[/i][/b][/s][/u]I used to have a different nic: "[i]Reddit Announces Layoffs and Hiring Slowdown P ..."

SH (No more Roe): "I think the copyright for the "Steamboat Willie" s ..."

Recent Entries
Search


Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Top Top Tens
Greatest Hitjobs

The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon
A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates
Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny
More Margaret Cho Abuse
Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny
Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman
Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format
John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia
World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading
Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree
Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears
Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed"
Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility
Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips
They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan
Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq
Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town
When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool
What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means
Wonkette's Stand-Up Act
Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour
Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider
My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty
Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA
An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear
The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report!
Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet
The House of Love: Paul Krugman
A Michael Moore Mystery (TM)
The Dowd-O-Matic!
Liberal Consistency and Other Myths
Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias
John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate
"Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long)
The Donkey ("The Raven" parody)
Powered by
Movable Type 2.64