Former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci’s lewd words came back to haunt him in an awkward interview Thursday.
The ousted member of the Trump administration sat with MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle to discuss Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, a controversial new book that is slated to release on Tuesday.
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The book, written by journalist Michael Wolff, includes intel from former Trump political strategist Steve Bannon, who strayed from the Republican leader’s side to accuse Trump and Donald Trump Jr. of having “treasonous” contact with Russians — and who fired Scaramucci after only nine days at his post.
Trump fired back at Bannon’s claims Wednesday by declaring his former key adviser had “lost his mind,” and Ruhle asked Scaramucci if he felt vindicated by his past criticisms of the disgraced official.
“I don’t feel so much vindicated as I would like Steve to knock it off and rejoin the team,” Scaramucci replied. He said Bannon still holds a powerful voice amongst Republicans and he should once again use it to support Trump’s presidency rather than spew falsehoods against it.
“Anthony, you said six months ago that you think Steve Bannon tries to suck his own penis!” Ruhle interjected. “And now you’re saying he should, you know, get on board, get on the team? Let’s be honest about how you feel.”
Scaramucci took the comment personally after his “favorite network” brought up his previous fowl language, but he insisted he’s “never come on a show without being honest about how I feel.”
He continued to note that, minus the expletives, his personal statement on Bannon six months ago is strikingly similar to Trump’s statement Wednesday, following the leaked pages of Fire and Fury.
Trump’s response to Bannon’s claims in the book suggested “he’s only in it for himself” and that he was rarely involved in influential meetings which would give him access to the information he claims to hold.
“Steve pretends to be at war with the media, which he calls the opposition party, yet he spent his time at the White House leaking false information to the media to make himself seem far more important than he was. It is the only thing he does well,” Trump said of his disgraced former employee.
Fire and Fury is set to release on January 9 and excerpts of the controversial book were released Wednesday, making various disparaging claims about the Trump administration and his family’s personal life.
A lawyer for Trump has issued a cease and desist letter to Wolff and his publishing company, demanding that they cancel the book’s release, retract any published information and publicly apologize for sharing “false/baseless statements” about the President.
