He may have lasted just 11 days as White House communications director, but Anthony Scaramucci still has a lot to say about U.S. President Donald Trump, those around him, and a new book that paints a picture of a highly dysfunctional administration.
Scaramucci, who made headlines during his brief tenure last summer for his brash style and unscripted, colourful language, for ripping apart former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon and for blowing a kiss to reporters at the end of his first press conference, sat down for an interview with CTV鈥檚 Your Morning Friday from the New York office of his investment firm.
He says recent book 鈥淔ire and Fury鈥� by journalist Michael Wolff should be called 鈥淟iar and Furious鈥� and says Wolff is a 鈥渃omplete liar鈥� fed by insiders only out for themselves.
He says the Trump White House is like the 1977 Yankees, who all hated each other but managed to win championships together.
鈥淢y attitude is, let鈥檚 put the fun in dysfunctionality,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut you had some guys inside the White House, the guys that helped this guy Wolff write 鈥淟iar and Furious.鈥� You know, they were bad guys. They were out for themselves. They didn鈥檛 really care about the president or his agenda.鈥�
Scaramucci, who was fired over an expletive-filled talk with a reporter ripping apart others in the administration, dismissed any idea that Trump is mentally unfit for the job, as alleged by Wolff and others.
鈥淗e鈥檚 not only sane and totally together, he鈥檚 a stable genius. We both know that, right?鈥� he said, alluding to Trump鈥檚 infamous tweet. 鈥淗ere鈥檚 the thing for your Canadian viewers: when he tweets out that he鈥檚 a stable genius, I鈥檓 laughing. Donald J. Trump Jr. is laughing, OK. We get the joke.鈥�
Trump uses Twitter as direct messaging to his supporters, says Scaramucci. On the campaign trail, Trump would see his tweets being discussed on mainstream TV news.
鈥淚s that presidential?鈥� Scaramucci said Trump would ask his team. When the answer was no, he would respond: 鈥淲ell listen, if I鈥檓 going to be presidential, then I鈥檓 not going to win the presidency.鈥�
Scaramucci also denied that Trump is a racist.
鈥淚鈥檝e seen him in action. He treats everybody the same. Now, you might not like the way he鈥檚 treating you but he鈥檚 not treating you based on your family of origin or your religious creed, he鈥檚 just treating you plain and simple fairly.鈥�
He says the allegations come from those using the politics of division and who 鈥渁ttack the president personally because he鈥檚 getting a lot right on policy.鈥�
Trump is an easy target because 鈥渟tylistically, he says some rough and tumble things that people are not going to like.鈥�
Scaramucci says he remains close to Trump and his family and did not take his firing personally. He doesn鈥檛 reject the idea of going back to the White House but says he probably doesn鈥檛 fit in to chief of staff John Kelly鈥檚 鈥渕ilitarized structure.鈥�
鈥淚f I got offered a job I thought I could do a good job at, of course I would consider it. My wife would probably kill me, so I鈥檝e got to be careful about that. But at the end of the day, maybe, but who knows.鈥�
