With just days left in the 2020 presidential election season, former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci is doubling down on a Joe Biden win next Tuesday.
Scaramucci told Cheddar that "weapons-grade-style" propaganda and a focus on culture war issues, rather than his administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic, are the only reasons President Donald Trump has held onto his supporters.
"He's made us weaker, sicker, and poorer, but he's got a standing because of the way they've set this up as a culture war narrative," he said. "That's why he's still in the race. I mean, he's going to get annihilated, but he's still in the race."
Scaramucci also blamed Trump's own coronavirus diagnosis, and the erratic tweeting during his recovery, as one reason the administration was unable to push another stimulus package through Congress. He alleged that inconsistent messaging from the president gave House Speaker Nancy Pelosi an opening to delay the vote until after the election.
"He could have probably gotten one, but I think it was the unpredictability of his personality that led to where we are right now," he said of a fourth stimulus bill.
On the current polling, Scaramucci pointed out that results have been fairly consistent over the last year, as opposed to the "roller coaster movement" of the 2016 election season.
"If anything, they may tip more into [Biden's] favor because of what's going on with COVID-19 now," he said.
In the case of a loss for Trump, Scaramucci offered this insight on his former employer:
"I think he's going to surprise people because, listen, all that is bluster and overcompensation born from his personal insecurities," he said. "I think if he gets annihilated — I predict he will — he'll give a concession speech, and then he's got to figure out how to work with Vice President Biden."
The prospect of Trump denying the election results is "smoke and mirrors," he added.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Monday, Dec. 10, 2018.
From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, these are the top stories that moved markets and had investors, business leaders, and entrepreneurs talking this week on Cheddar.
Times Square is known as the "crossroads of the world," but tell that to Stacey Cunningham. The CEO of the New York Stock Exchange, the first woman to hold the job in the exchange's 226-year history, said it's at the NYSE where capitalism, economics, politics and "the world at large" converge.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Friday, Dec. 6, 2018.
Los Angeles is taking a strong stance against single-use plastic straws: the local City Council is moving forward with its "Plastic Straws on Request" initiative with an ultimate goal to phase them out completely by 2021. "This has been a long time coming," Mitch O'Farrell, Los Angeles city council member, told Cheddar Thursday. "I wish that the city had acted 10, 15 years ago."
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Thursday, Dec. 6, 2018.
Medical marijuana is now legal in Utah, but not exactly in the form voters intended. Shortly after the medical marijuana initiative, Proposition 2, was scheduled to go into effect, the Utah state House and Senate swooped in and replaced it with a new law. Wayne Niederhauser, a Republican senator for Utah's 9th district, defended the move in an interview on Cheddar Wednesday.
Financial markets closed, mail delivery stopped, and federal offices shut down as the nation paused to remember the life of President George H.W. Bush, who will be memorialized during a state funeral at Washington's National Cathedral on Wednesday.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2018.
The famously stoic president of France may have conceded on fuel taxes to protestors, but his decision was most likely a product of circumstance, not an act of altruism. In this case, said Erin Zaleski of the Daily Beast, Emmanuel Macron had no one with whom he could negotiate. But small concessions, like a fuel tax moratorium, won't be enough to satisfy protesters who are wreaking havoc in the streets of Paris.
