Scaramucci Praises Breitbart in First Interview Since Communications Appointment
Newly-named White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci on Saturday praised conservative news site Breitbart News and its political editor Matt Boyle during his first interview since being tapped to join the Trump administration.
“One of the things Breitbart has done is you’ve captured the spirit of what’s actually going on in the country,” Scaramucci told Boyle during an interview on “Breitbart News Saturday” on SiriusXM.
Scaramucci further joked with Boyle that he was surprised the editor had not sent in his resume for West Wing consideration yet.
Scaramucci said he is aiming to get Trump’s unfiltered message through to his supporters via the president’s Twitter feed, bypassing mainstream outlets that Trump often calls “fake news” while hoping to de-escalate what Scaramucci sees as unfairness and bias in the media.
“We have enough outlets, whether it’s Breitbart, the president’s social media feed, all of the different apparatus that we have, where people will allow us to deliver our message to the American people unfiltered,” Scaramucci said. “We’re having a rough time with the mainstream media, but last time I checked during the campaign we were having a rough time with the mainstream media and the people see through it.”
Trump has boasted that his 140-character missives allow him to eschew more traditional forums like White House press conferences for getting his message out. But some Republicans in Congress have become increasingly agitated with those statements, especially when they veer far from the Hill’s efforts to pass GOP and Trump legislative initiatives.
Founded by the late Andrew Breitbart, the conservative news site garnered a reputation for boosting the “alt-right” movement under the leadership of former leader Steve Bannon, who left Breitbart to join Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and now serves as Trump’s chief strategist.
Bannon, along with White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, is reportedly furious with the president for naming Scaramucci to such a high-ranking role.
Sean Spicer resigned as White House press secretary when it was announced that Scaramucci, a Wall Street financier, would be joining the administration.
President Trump was reportedly sold on Scaramucci for the New Yorker’s repeated cable TV appearances where he defended the president and his policies.
The president, who just this morning re-upped his disdain for “fake news,” is particularly pleased with Scaramucci’s ability to extract a correction from CNN for a since-retracted story about the financier and alleged Russian connections. Three CNN staffers resigned following the publication and subsequent retraction of the story.
[Politico]