Newly appointed White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci called into CNN’s “New Day” on Thursday morning to explain a now-deleted tweet that appeared to accuse chief of staff Reince Priebus for leaking information. During the 30-minute interview, Scaramucci challenged Priebus to prove he’s not a leaker.
Twitter went bananas late Wednesday night when Scaramucci tagged Priebus in a tweet that said, “In light of the leak of my financial disclosure info which is a felony. I will be contacting the FBI and the Justice Department.”
The tweet was deleted after political Twitter assumed that Scaramucci was accusing Priebus of being the leak by tagging him in the tweet. Scaramucci called into CNN to clarify what he meant, but didn’t exactly clear Priebus.
“When I put out a tweet and I put Reince’s name in a tweet, they all make the assumption that it’s him because journalists know who the leakers are,” Scaramucci told Chris Cuomo.
Scaramucci continued: “So if Reince wants to explain he’s not a leaker, let him do that. But let me tell you about myself. I’m a straight shooter and I’ll go right to the heart of the matter.”
Trump’s newest staffer is angry because Politico obtained his financial disclosure that showed he was still making money from his investment in Skybridge Capital. He told Cuomo that in the past, people would be have been “hung” for foreign policy leaks.
Scaramucci said, “The fish stinks from the head down,” but noted that he and Trump don’t stink. He admitted that he’s had “differences” with Priebus in the past.
“I don’t know if this is repairable or not. That will be up to the President,” Scaramucci said.
When asked if he was specifically accusing the chief of staff, Scaramucci responded, “I am not. I am saying senior officials are working on this together.”
Scaramucci also said “the President and I would like to tell everybody we have a very, very good idea of who the leakers are, who the senior leakers are in the White House.”
He said he respects journalistic integrity and understands why reporters won’t reveal who is leaking information from inside the White House but is dedicated to finding out for himself.
Check out the video above.