Donald Trump’s former White House Communications Director Anthony “The Mooch” Scaramucci is out making the rounds promoting his new book “Trump, the Blue-Collar President,” which went on sale Oct 23.
While doing an interview on CNN (video) on Wednesday with John Berman, Scaramucci said, “President Trump “is a liar” and that he should probably dial down the lying”.”
Scaramucci said such people are “like a rascal, like a scoundrel.”
“I asked you what do you call someone who likes to lie? You said a scoundrel,” Berman replied. “Another thing you could call someone who likes to lie is a liar. Is he a liar?”
“OK, well we both know that he’s telling lies. So if you want me to say he’s a liar, I’m happy to say he’s a liar,” Scaramucci said.
“Nobody should lie. I’m not a big believer in lying. But politicians happen to lie,” he said.
“You want to say that to the camera? To the President?” Berman asks.
“Nobody should lie,” Scaramucci said after turning to the look directly into a camera. “But, you know, you’re a politician now, so politicians lie when their lips are moving, and so all these people lie. But you should probably dial down the lying because you don’t need to. You’re doing a great job for the country. So dial that down, and you’ll be doing a lot better.”
CNN; Oct 24 2018
Scaramucci goes on to say there is “an entertainment aspect” when Trump lies, that he is “playing to the crowd for the laughs” because “you know, that’s been his persona … his style” and that the “success of it” can’t be argued with.
Though Scaramucci left the White House after only 10 days being White House Communications director, leaving behind his “infamous, expletive-laden interview he gave to the New Yorker in which he ripped top White House officials by name,” he has remained a Trump defender while “at times making public appeals about curtailing some of his behavior and changing policies.”
In August, Scaramucci spoke with CNN’s Brian Stelter taking to task the president’s and others in this administration’s language used describing the press as “the enemy” saying it was wrong and that he had taken his “concerns” directly to the president and some of his staff.
Scaramucci’s comments came after Trump took to his twitter account [with his unsecured iPhone] on Aug 5 when Stelter asked Scaramucci directly if he believes that the press and journalists are the enemy.
Aug 5 2018
“I would encourage people that are in the West Wing, if they think differently than the president, they should speak out,” Scaramucci said. “I don’t think that this war with the media is something that’s going to help him long term.”
CNN; Aug 8 2018
…
“I’ve said that consistently that they’re not the enemy,” Scaramucci replied. “You can have an adversarial relationship, you can disagree with people in the press … But I don’t like the war declaration because it will lead to something that none of us really want.”
By Thursday, as Scaramucci continued on with his book tour “media blitz,” the Washington Post reported the Mooch had changed his tune and was now also on a blitz tour of walking his words back, or as he says, “correct the record.”
According to the Washington Post report, in an interview on Fox News, Scaramucci said of his interview with CNN that he “didn’t really say the president was a liar.”
“They asked me if the president tells mistruths or lies,” Scaramucci said of his CNN interview during an appearance on Fox News. “I said he does intentionally lie to create a dog whistle and create some atmospherics … So they go and put a little tagline, ‘Scaramucci calls president a liar.’ That’s not what I was doing.”
“I didn’t really say the president was a liar,” he insisted. “I said the president is using a methodology of mistruth to create that level of tension and anxiety. He’s like pushing the mainstream media and the left, and he’s trying to galvanize his base, and it’s a media device.”
Washington Post; Oct 25 2018
Later, appearing on Bloomberg’s Markets and Finance Scaramucci says it a different way by saying, “No … Trump is not “a liar” he’s “an intentional liar” who uses “a methodology of mistruth,” which was, he said, “very different from just being a liar-liar.”
“Yes, the president is speaking mistruths,” Scaramucci continued. “Yes, the president is lying. He’s doing it intentionally to incite certain people, which would include left-leaning journalists and most of the left-leaning politicians.”
YouTube
Published Oct 25 2018
For a bonus round, on Oct 23, Scaramucci goes on CNN with Chris Cuomo and ends up Trumpsplaining the day after President Trump declares he’s a Nationalist to a cheering crowd of rally goers for Sen Ted Cruz in Houston saying that Trump is just “an antagonist” but not “a Nationalist.” Cuomo says, “he says he is” adding that Trump said, “they tell me not to use this [word],” then Scaramucci suggests “then someone should really sit down and explain to him what the context of that is.”
YouTube
Published Oct 23 2018
On A Side Note (Opinion)
I’m not sure what game the Mooch is playing here. Selling his book for sure, but I’d go further. I’d posit he’s selling Trump access as well. He has gone back to his old company Skybridge, which he founded in 2005 and attempted to sell in January 2017 when he joined Trump’s transition team. He’s now back to being co-manager partner.
Skybridge Capital is a “network of hedge funds,” according to his bio page. According to a Bloomberg report, Scaramicci reached a deal to sell his ownership to ‘HNA Group,’ which is a Chinese conglomerate with close ties to the Communist Party regime. The deal fell through after CFIUS’ delayed approval and it was announced in May of this year the deal was off. However, “the two companies nevertheless plan to look into a partnership in which HNA could distribute SkyBridge’s products in China.”
Right. Like I was saying, I’d posit his other game is peddling possible access to Trump, whether he has any or not. Who knows, maybe the Chinese Communist Party has been listening to Scaramucci and Trump talking on Trump’s iPhone that he never uses, you know, except for all those times he does. A liar by any other name is still a liar.