President Donald Trump’s ex-pal and 10-day White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci gave White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney some tough love Thursday.
Appearing on CNN’s “Cuomo Prime Time,” Trump’s onetime ally, now a harsh critic, had some candid advice for Mulvaney: “Get outta there.”
“We’re not friends, I’ve met him a few times,” Scaramucci said of Mulvaney. “As a guy, from a guy to a guy, I would say Mick, you gotta go,” Scaramucci told host Chris Cuomo.
“Just resign and get outta there. You’re a young guy, you can rehab your career, you can own some of the mistakes that you made supporting this lunatic.”
Scaramucci made the comments while discussing the rough transcript of the Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which prompted the impeachment inquiry into the president’s conduct.
“I suspect that there’s tons of them,” Scaramucci speculated, referring to records of other Trump calls with world leaders. “I think that’s why Mulvaney’s having a hard time, because he’s looking at these transcripts. He knows that they are very odd; they’re unpresidential.”
He suggested that if Mulvaney didn’t stand down, it “has to do with those elements that go on in your personality.”
“You’re under siege, Stockholm syndrome.” he riffed.
The acting White House chief of staff has been under fire in recent weeks for a series of damaging missteps. In attempts to put positive spin on Trump’s decision to host the G-7 summit of world leaders at his own golf resort, and his alleged quid pro quo with Ukraine, Mulvaney struggled, and ended up creating more fodder for Trump critics.
The back-to-back bad performances prompted speculation over Mulvaney’s job security, although on Sunday he adamantly denied any consideration of resignation while appearing on Fox News. “Absolutely, positively not,” he said.
Scaramucci continued to be an outspoken Trump defender after being fired by the president in 2017. But this summer, he penned a withering op-ed for The Washington Post admitting he was wrong and vowing to work against Trump’s reelection.
He said the final straw had been the president’s comments about the four progressive congresswomen of color who make up “The Squad” ― Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). Trump wrote in a racist tweet that they should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”
“While it’s difficult and embarrassing to admit my errors in judgment, I believe I still have the ability to make amends,” Scaramucci wrote in his op-ed.
Watch Scaramucci’s CNN appearance below: