One day after new White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci scoured through his Twitter account, deleting any tweets (mostly critical of Trump) that could be a “distraction” for the White House, on Sunday morning the former Goldman employee pledged that as one of his first steps, he would “take dramatic action” to halt the biggest problem plaguing the Trump White House: the endless torrent of leaks.
“I will take dramatic action to stop those leaks,” Scaramucci told Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday” adding that while he could not control leaks coming from the intergovernmental agencies, he would take action in the White House communications department.
“If the leaks don’t stop, I’m going to pare down the staff because it’s not fair to the president, to America, and to the people in government” he threatened while adding that “everyone can stay if the follow protocol against the leaks.”
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Scaramucci’s appointment as communications director on Friday set off the latest in a series of leaks describing White House in-fighting, with Scaramucci’s appointment eventually prompting then-White House press secretary Sean Spicer to resign.
The incoming communications director also said he would focus on refining White House-press relations. “There is some fake news unfortunately,” he said, adding that there were specific people in the media who “stretch or fabricate things.” Scaramucci also explained that he would use social media and Trump’s abilities as a communicator to overcome negative stories.
Later in the same interview, Scaramucci said that the Russia “situation” has been “overblown,” and the White House is looking to “deescalate” it.
“We certainly want to deescalate things,” Scaramucci told Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday.” “I think the Russian situation is overblown” he said, adding that the meeting with the Russian attorney was a non-event.
Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russian attorney was a “non event,” @Scaramucci tells @jaketapper #CNNSOTU https://t.co/BbPzrPemw3
— CNN (@CNN) July 23, 2017
Scaramucci addressed the recent WaPo report that Trump and his legal team are exploring ways he could potentially pardon himself and those close to him in regards to the ongoing probe into alleged collusion between his campaign and Russia. “He has no one to pardon. He hasn’t done anything wrong. He was just making a statement about power to pardon,” he said.
Trump on Saturday said “all” agree that he has “complete power to pardon” in a tweet blasting leaks in his administration.
Separately, during a whirlwind Sunday morning media tour, Scaramucci addressed the same topic during an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” in which he was asked about Trump’s tweet in which he said: “while all agree the U. S. President has the complete power to pardon, why think of that when only crime so far is LEAKS against us.”
Scaramucci responded that the tweet is proof that Trump isn’t thinking about pardons related to the investigation.
“He’s basically saying he doesn’t have to pardon anybody,” Scaramucci said when asked who the president is thinking about pardoning.
“The president is thinking about pardoning nobody…The president is not going to have to pardon anybody because the Russia thing is a nonsensical thing.”
During the same interview, Scaramucci said he expects achievements to be made on both healthcare and tax reform over the next six months. “These things, they go up and down, president is an experienced business person, he’s a very effective politician,” he said.
“I just think we need to deliver the messaging a little bit differently than we’ve been doing it in the past.” The new White House comms director also said the economy is “super strong” and business optimism is “way up.
