Monday on CNBC’s “Power Lunch” on the heels of the announcement of the removal of Anthony Scaramucci as White House communications director, former Reagan White House communications director Pat Buchanan praised the move, which reportedly happened at the request of new White House chief of staff John Kelly.
Buchanan called it “dramatic and impressive and correct.”
“What happened was the general came in, Gen. Kelly, and he basically was repulsed by what Scaramucci said and how he said it and what he said about his colleagues,” Buchanan said. “This is not the kind of operation or individual that the general wants in his operation. And he exercised immediate and swift and decisive command and got rid of an individual. And it sends a message, I think, out to the country that you have a man in charge who is the chief of staff, who does decide on people who are even those close to the president of the United States. I think it’s an extremely healthy sign of the potential of the general. The general’s job is obviously going to be a very, very tough one, bringing that staff under control and frankly moving to bring order, discipline and a chain of command to the White House, but his first step was dramatic and impressive and correct.”
Buchanan went on to add Kelly would bring a Marine Corps ethic to the West Wing, which he said was something it “clearly needs.”
“I think the potential is clearly there because of who the general is,” he added. “Four decades in the Marine Corps, I think he’s going to bring a touch of Parris Island to the West Wing, and this I think the West Wing clearly needs. But your problem is basically — look, the American people elected the president, and his style of management is — of course, he calls Ivanka and Jared into the Oval Office, and they have Oval Office privileges when they want. But the other staff members — what the general’s got to do in my judgment is this. Look, the president’s going to call people in on his own, but once you come out of there, you come down to my office and tell me what you’ve been instructed to do, and we decide on what we’re going to say in the morning staff meetings that I will chair. And so I think you get order and discipline there, and you can get everybody working off the same people, I think. But I think that’s what — and look, nobody is going to tell General Kelly how to organize a staff, for heaven sakes.”
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