Anthony Scaramucci Tour Highlights

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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Mia Sorenti (0:30)

A brief content warning, this episode contains some mature themes and offensive language.

Welcome to Intelligence Squared, where great minds meet. I'm senior producer Mia Sorenti. The US midterm elections are fast approaching. As the unpopular war in Iran drags on, and prices spike as a result, will the American voters punish Donald Trump? To reflect on the path to Trumpism and America's future, today's episode is a roundup of all the highlights from our recent tour with Anthony Scaramucci. Scaramucci toured seven cities around the UK to discuss his new book, All the Wrong Moves, speaking to hosts including Matt Ford, Anne McElvoy, Katie Razzle, Tina Brown, Justin Webb, Peter Frankpann and Marina Hyde. Let's hear some of the highlights now.

Anthony Scaramucci (1:22)

Do you want to hear how I got fired?

SPEAKER_4 (1:25)

We all want to hear that.

Anthony Scaramucci (1:27)

I knew I got fired because they issue this White House bat phone. It's like this super encrypted iPhone. And so the National Security Team says to you, okay, this is your phone, you're an assistant to the president, you can only communicate with the president, the vice president and staff on this phone. It's hardened and encrypted, so no spy work can get into the phone. And I said, okay, great. At 6 a.m. on Monday, I turned the phone on to text Vice President Pence, so I was supposed to meet him at 7.30.

The phone wasn't working.

They had cut my air supply at 6 a.m. in the morning. And I said, oh shit, I'm getting fired. Okay, and then I got fired at 9.30. General Kelly fired me because Trump is a bit of a baby. He doesn't like conflict. He's a keyboard warrior. He'll say nasty stuff about Gavin Newsom, or he'll say nasty stuff about Prime Minister Carney, and then when he's in their presence, he's like all lovey-dovey with them. So he didn't fire me himself. I got fired at 9.30.

SPEAKER_4 (2:25)

The president wouldn't do the firing anyway, right? Yeah.

Anthony Scaramucci (2:28)

Come on. No, he fired. He's got a little tougher. He fired Pam.

SPEAKER_4 (2:34)

Directly.

Anthony Scaramucci (2:35)

He fired her directly. He's got a little tougher. He's fired more people directly. He fired Christie directly.

SPEAKER_4 (2:41)

He did it himself, and they didn't get the chief of staff. So anyway, that's how I got in chief.

Anthony Scaramucci (2:46)

So now, guys, I'm trying to stay loyal to the guy because I don't want to be the baby. He just fired me. I think the whole place is like a freak show. I'm not going to say anything because I don't want to be that disgruntled employee baby. So I go out and I try to support him afterwards. I'm on the Bill Maher show. It's two years later. I'm trying to generally support him. And Catherine Rampell used to work for the Washington Post. She's now on her own. She looks at me and she said, What about the Squad?

The president that week had said that the Squad, these are four congressional leaders, four representatives, three are African American, one is Hispanic American. The president said that week they should go back to the countries they originally came from. The problem is three of them were born in the United States, and one was naturalized from Somalia. And so she looked at me, what about the remark about the Squad? And I said, listen, that's American nativism, it's a form of racism, and he's the president of the United States, he should not talk like that. The show ends, and Bill Maher looks over at me, he says, Trump's gonna go off on you tomorrow. And I said, really? I thought I was generally defending him. He goes, yeah, you know, you were seven for eight for Trump, you gotta go 13 for 10 for Donald Trump. And tomorrow, he's gonna light you up like a Christmas tree. And I bet him dinner at Craig's in West Hollywood by 3 p.m. I had lost the bet and I'm getting lit up by Donald Trump, okay? And by the way, you know, I'm gonna, again, because I want this to be as honest as possible, I go white like the sheet of paper in front of Ann. I'm sitting there with my wife and obviously this is two years now after we almost got divorced and we're trying to heal our marriage. And he is attacking me. And I am white. This is the President of the United States. At that time, he had 80 million Twitter followers. And then all of a sudden, the New York in me clicked in.