Anthony Scaramucci, the White House’s new communications director, is not getting along very well with Chief of Staff Reince Priebus.
In a new interview with New Yorker correspondent Ryan Lizza, he unloads on the negative press he’s received since his new appointment.
“I’ve asked people not to leak things for a period of time and give me a honeymoon period,” Scaramucci reportedly told Lizza on the phone. “They won’t do it.”
Lizza says Scaramucci “eventually convinced himself” that Priebus was a source of such information. He then went on a miniature tirade to the reporter.
“They’ll all be fired by me,” Scaramucci reportedly said. “I fired one guy the other day. I have three to four people I’ll fire tomorrow. I’ll get to the person who leaked that to you. Reince Priebus—if you want to leak something—he’ll be asked to resign very shortly.” He added: “”Reince is a fucking paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac.”
Channeling his target, Scaramucci said: “Oh, Bill Shine is coming in. Let me leak the fucking thing and see if I can cock-block these people the way I cock-blocked Scaramucci for six months.”
He continued, taking additional shots at Priebus as well as White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.
A recent Politico report detailed Scaramucci’s financial disclosure form, which Scaramucci initially believed that Priebus leaked. In a tweet that he later deleted, Scaramucci called it “a felony.”
Update, 6:35 p.m. Eastern: As his reported words ricocheted around the Internet, Scaramucci nodded to them in a tweet: “I sometimes use colorful language. I will refrain in this arena but not give up the passionate fight for @realDonaldTrump’s agenda. #MAGA”