WASHINGTON, D.C. — White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters during Monday’s press briefing that freshly ousted and short-lived Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci was out of the Trump administration because the president found his profanity-laden rant to a New Yorker reporter to be “inappropriate for a person in that position.”
A reporter asked Sanders if Scaramucci has any role in the Trump Administration after being dismissed. She answered, “He does not have a role at this time in the Trump Administration.”
Another reporter asked if any “chain of command issue” factored into Scaramucci being let go, as he had previously indicated that he reported directly to the president and not to the chief of staff. Gen. John Kelly was sworn in as White House Chief of Staff on Monday. He replaced Reince Priebus.
Sanders responded:
The President certainly felt that Anthony’s comments were inappropriate for a person in that position and he didn’t want to burden Gen. Kelly. Also, with that line of succession, as I think we’ve made clear a few times over the course of the last couple of days to several of you individually, but Gen. Kelly has the full authority to operate within the White House and all staff will report to him.
Just days after ascending to the position of White House Communications Director, Scaramucci made a phone call to reporter Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker. Lizza reported on the conversation, in which Scaramucci threatened to fire the communications team and “the entire place.” This came after Scaramucci appeared to accuse Priebus of leaking his financial disclosure report to the press, adding it was a felony to leak that document. However, such reports are publicly available.
Another reporter pressed Sanders on a White House statement that “Mr. Scaramucci felt it was best to give Chief of Staff John Kelly a clean slate and the ability to build his own team” and Sanders’ remark that the President felt Scaramucci’s comments were inappropriate.
Sanders responded, “I don’t see those as being mutually exclusive. I think Anthony wants General Kelly to be able to operate fully with a clean slate, build his own team, while at the same time, the President felt his comments were inappropriate. Those two things aren’t mutually exclusive.”
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