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(Video: New White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders Huckabee comments on Sean Spicer’s resignation)
WASHINGTON – The new White House communications director’s very first challenge was to communicate that his own hiring had not put the West Wing into turmoil.
New York financier Anthony Scaramucci appeared at the White House daily press briefing to try to put to rest widespread reports in the media that his appointment had been strenuously opposed by top presidential aides, especially Press Secretary Sean Spicer, who resigned Friday after just six months on the job.
Spicer’s aide, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, was immediately promoted to White House press secretary.
It was a rapid changing of the guard in the White House press briefing room during a sweltering, swampy and sweaty Friday in Washington, with reporters packed elbow-to-elbow, all trying to keep pace with a story that seemed to add new layers of intrigue by the minute.
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Multiple White House sources had told the media that Spicer quit in vehement protest after President Trump informed him of Scaramucci’s hiring on Friday morning. Scaramucci would have been Spicer’s direct superior.
The departing press secretary had been doing double duty as communications director since Mike Dubke resigned in May after just three months on the job.
Spicer is said to have told Trump he believed the appointment was a major mistake.
However, a few hours after word of Spicer’s resignation broke, he said in a tweet that he will “continue my service” to the White House through August.
Additionally, Scaramucci played down any rift with Spicer, telling reporters he met with the departing press secretary and found him to be “most gracious” and a “team player” who simply wanted to provide the new communications director with “a clean slate.”
In his first official news conference, Scaramucci got a quick lesson in the tenacity of the press. As soon as he said he’d take questions, about 70 hands shot up in the air and began waving, along with a chorus calling out his name. Seemingly taken aback, the new communications director promised he would take “all” of the reporters questions.
That caused a bit of a giggled murmur to ripple through the room, as reporters sensed if he kept his promise, the briefing might last until the next day. Still, Scaramucci kept counseling reporters to be patient, that he would get to all of their questions.
After about 45 minutes, with roughly the same amount of hands still shooting up in the air, he took the hint from Press Secretary Sanders, hovering behind him, and said he would take just one more question.
However, Scaramucci addressed the big questions head on, including multiple reports that White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon had strongly opposed his appointment.
The new communications director said he has worked with Preibus for so long, and they are so close, “We are a little bit like brothers, where we rough each other up a little, which is totally normal for brothers. There’s a lot of people here who have brothers, so you get that.”
Scaramucci insisted, contrary to media reports, that Priebus had welcomed him aboard and the two would be working very closely.
“I support Anthony 100 percent. We go back a long long way and are very good friends. All good here,” Priebus told The Weekly Standard.
Perhaps notably, Scaramucci did not say Bannon had welcomed his arrival, but did say he said he had “enormous respect” for the top adviser, adding, “He has a strong personality, I have a strong personality.”
NBC reporter Katy Tur, who Trump has tweeted “should be fired for dishonest reporting,” insisted two sources confirmed to her that Bannon had told Scaramucci to his face “over my dead body will you get this job.”
Scaramucci may’ve sent a message in public to Priebus from the podium, marking his turf, when he stated he will report directly to the president, leaving it unstated that he would not be reporting to Priebus, the chief of staff.
Speculation that Priebus and Bannon opposed the hiring of Scaramucci was tied to his support of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, and later former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, before backing Trump in the 2016 presidential campaign.
In fact, as WND is reporting separately, ABC White House reporter Jonathan Karl greeted Scaramucci to his new job by reminding him that on the campaign trail in 2015 he had called candidate Trump a “big mouth” and a “class divider” who was a “Democratic plant” to help Hillary Clinton win.
(Video: Scaramucci meets the press on first day on the job and is asked if he is qualified to be communications director.)
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“I never should have said that about him,” Scaramucci reflected, calling it “one of the biggest mistakes I made, because I was an inexperienced person in politics and was supporting another candidate.”
Scaramucci said the president had forgiven him but constantly ribs his fellow New Yorker about those comments, bringing it up “every 15 seconds.”
“I love the president, and I’m very, very loyal to the president, and I love the mission the president has,” he said.
The president has known Scaramucci for years and thinks highly of him.
Trump said in a statement the White House released Friday night: “Anthony is a person I have great respect for, and he will be an important addition to this Administration. He has been a great supporter and will now help implement key aspects of our agenda while leading the communications team. We have accomplished so much, and we are being given credit for so little. The good news is the people get it, even if the media doesn’t.”
Scaramucci is a Harvard-trained lawyer who founded the global investment firm SkyBridge Capital but has no professional experience in journalism.
However, he has appeared on television as a Fox News Channel contributor and was said to have made an extremely favorable impression on the president with his vigorous defense of the Trump administration.
Additionally, according to the New York Times, Scaramucci “also enjoys good relationships with journalists from an array of outlets, including those the president has labeled ‘fake news.'”
Upon meeting the press Friday, the new communications director quipped, “I have never been a journalist, but I have played a journalist on television. You know, I used to host ‘Wall Street Week’ for Fox Business, so I have empathy for journalists.”
“Comms is what Anthony does,” a source told NBC. “It’s how he built his business. The guy knows media. He’s been a good advocate for the president.”
(Video: Scaramucci asked about “staging” the news)
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From the press briefing room podium, Scaramucci acknowledged the administration’s contentious relationship with the mainstream media, but saw many successes ahead.
“Right now, we are micromanaging the seconds of the news cycle. I predict that the president will get a win in health care. That’s my honest prediction, just because I’ve seen him in operation over the last 20-plus years.”
“He’s a genuinely wonderful human being and I think as the members of Congress get to know him better and get comfortable with him they’re going to let him lead them to the right things for the American people, so I think we’re going to get the health care done,” the new spokesman predicted.
“I also think we’re going to get tax reform done. And whatever else is on the president’s agenda, we’re going to work very, very hard very studiously to make it happen.”
Trump issued a statement thanking Spicer for his work. Read by Sanders from the podium during Friday’s briefing, the president said: “I am grateful for Sean’s work on behalf of my administration and the American people. I wish him continued success as he moves on to pursue new opportunities — just look at his great television ratings.”
“It has been a tremendous honor to serve as the Trump Administration’s first Press Secretary,” said Spicer in a statement. “In just 6 months, President Trump and his staff have done great work to advance the interests of the American people, both at home and abroad. President Trump’s unwavering commitment to making America great again will no doubt ensure that these successes continue in the coming months and years.”
Scaramucci said of Spicer, “I love the guy and I wish him well, and I hope he goes on to make a tremendous amount of money.”
