White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci unloaded on chief of staff Reince Priebus and others in separate CNN and New Yorker interviews that took a turn for the profane this week.
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“The fish stinks from the head down,” Scaramucci told CNN about the White House.
“I can tell you two fish that don’t stink, and that’s me and the president.”
Scaramucci spoke to CNN on Wednesday, the same day he issued a tweet in which he said that he would contact the FBI and the Justice Department about the leak of his financial disclosure info, which was published in Politico.
He tagged Priebus in the tweet, which was later deleted.
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However, the personal financial information he claimed someone had “leaked” about him had been obtained by a public records request.
On Thursday, Scaramucci followed up with a call to New Yorker reporter Ryan Lizza, during which he used several choice words to describe the chief of staff.
WATCH: Scaramucci accuses Trump’s chief of staff of being a ‘leaker’
The call followed Lizza’s tweet about a dinner that included Scaramucci, U.S. President Donald Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, Fox News personality Sean Hannity and ex-Fox News executive Bill Shine.
He accused Priebus of being a “f****** paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac,” and also charged White House chief strategist Steve Bannon with using President Donald Trump to bolster his own brand.
Scaramucci went on to ask Lizza to reveal the source who leaked news about the dinner and threatened to fire them.
After Lizza refused, Scaramucci threatened to fire more White House staffers, saying that he would “fire every one of them, and then you haven’t protected anybody, so the entire place will be fired over the next two weeks.”
Following the interview, the New Yorker published the story on its website. Scaramucci tweeted about the incident later in the day, saying that he sometimes used “colourful language.”
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“I sometimes use colorful language. I will refrain in this arena but not give up the passionate fight for @realDonaldTrump’s agenda. #MAGA,” he tweeted. The tag at the end stands for Trump’s “Make America Great Again,” he said on Twitter.
Scaramucci told CNN during his call-in interview that he didn’t know whether his relationship with Priebus could be repaired. He compared them to brothers who “are rough on each other.”
The tension between Priebus and Scaramucci comes from the new communications director’s view that Priebus convinced Trump to keep him out of the White House since January, and that Priebus was not adequately supportive of Trump near the end of his campaign.
Scaramucci tweeted the following on Thursday night.
- With files from the Associated Press.