CBS News: Anthony Scaramucci Out As White House Communications Director
WASHINGTON (CBS/CNN) -- Anthony Scaramucci is out as White House communications director less than two weeks after being appointed to the position, CBS News confirms.
The moves comes the same day President Donald Trump's new White House Chief of Staff, Gen. John Kelly, was sworn in.
"I want to congratulate you on having done a fantastic job, general, and we look forward, if it's possible, to an even better job," said Trump. Kelly was previously Homeland Security secretary.
Former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer and former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus stepped down after Scaramucci came on board.
The White House said in a statement that Scaramucci "felt it was best" to give Kelly a "clean slate and the ability to build his own team."
According to CBS News, Scaramucci was removed from the White House grounds.
A White House official said Kelly wanted Scaramucci removed from his new role as the communications director because he did not think he was disciplined and had burned his credibility.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Monday that all White House staff will report to Kelly.
"Gen. Kelly has the full authority to operate within the White House, and all staff will report to him," she said. When pressed further whether staffers including Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump and Steve Bannon will all report to Kelly, Sanders said: "That includes everybody at the White House."
Scaramucci, a colorful and controversial figure, was brought on during the latest in a long list of White House shake ups that have imbued the Trump presidency with a sense of chaos.
Scaramucci is the third White House communications director to leave the post that had been vacant since late May, when Mike Dubke left after about three months on the job. Sean Spicer, the former White House press secretary, also assumed some of the communications director role before he resigned when Scaramucci was hired July 21.
Scaramucci's departure comes days after he unleashed a vulgar tirade against two top White House officials in a conversation with a reporter.
After Ryan Lizza, a reporter for The New Yorker and a CNN contributor, broke the news that Scaramucci was having dinner with Fox News host Sean Hannity and former top Fox News executive Bill Shine, Scaramucci called to try to force Lizza to give up his source.
Scaramucci suspected that Priebus was the leaker and slammed the former chief of staff.
"Reince is a f---ing paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac," he said, mimicking Priebus when he added, '''Let me leak the f---ing thing and see if I can c--k block these people the way I c--k blocked Scaramucci for six months.'"
And in a comment that drew consternation from even some Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill, Scaramucci slammed White House strategist Steve Bannon, a longtime Trump adviser, for what Scaramucci considered was trying to build his own brand from the White House.
"I'm not Steve Bannon, I'm not trying to suck my own c--k," he said.
Trump thought that Scaramucci's comments to The New Yorker were inappropriate, Sanders told reporters on Monday.
"The president certainly felt that Anthony's comments were inappropriate for someone in that position and he didn't want to burden Gen. Kelly also with that line of succession," she said during the White House news briefing.
Before the New Yorker interview published, Scaramucci called into CNN's "New Day" and all but blamed Priebus for leaking information. The remarkable interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo -- which came after Scaramucci included Priebus' name in a tweet about leaking -- put the developing power struggle inside the West Wing on full display, with Scaramucci at one point warning that "the fish stinks from the head down."
"When I put out a tweet and I put Reince's name in a tweet, they're all making the assumption that it's him because journalists know who the leakers are," Scaramucci said on "New Day." "So if Reince wants to explain he's not a leaker, let him do that. But let me tell you about myself. I'm a straight shooter and I'll go right to the heart of the matter."
Despite not always being a Trump supporter, Scaramucci entered the White House as someone with a long relationship with Trump, something others in the communications shop did not enjoy. In interviews during his brief tenure as a White House staffer, Scaramucci talked up his knowledge of Trump's needs and his connection to the president.
Scaramucci, who advised Trump during the 2016 campaign, had hoped for an earlier post in the administration and began selling his hedge fund -- SkyBridge Capital -- in order to win a role. But that role was delayed for Scaramucci, who blamed Priebus and other establishment Republicans in the administration for blocking his entry.
Before becoming communications director, Scaramucci was named as vice president and chief strategy officer at the Export-Import Bank.
When asked if Scaramucci is returning to the Ex-Im bank, a spokesperson for the bank said: "We are checking into this matter."
Asked the same question, Sanders said: "He does not have a role at this time in the Trump administration," Sanders said, later specifying that Scaramucci doesn't currently have a position at Ex-Im.
But what really warmed Trump to Scaramucci was his months of being a prominent TV surrogate for the President, regularly clashing with television hosts and casting the Trump administration as a well-oiled machine.
Scaramucci, despite casting himself as a political outsider in the vein of Trump, was national finance co-chair of 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney's presidential campaign and later fundraiser for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in the 2016 GOP primaries before jumping to Trump's campaign.
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