Scaramucci: Trump's Playing to His Base With Immigration Rhetoric
*By Carlo Versano*
Anthony Scaramucci, the colorful former adviser to President Trump who was unceremoniously fired after 10 days as White House communications director, said that Trump's latest hard-line immigration rhetoric is a ploy to energize members of his base who otherwise may be complacent and stay home on Election Day.
"This narrow-casting idea may make sense" given that the economy is strong, Scaramucci said Monday in an interview on Cheddar. Trump is hitting the "hot buttons of his base" to get them to vote.
Scaramucci ー who said he's still regularly in touch with the president despite his abrupt departure from a short, but tumultuous tenure in the summer of 2017 ー is promoting a book "Trump, The Blue-Collar President," in which he attempts to explain how, despite the trappings of his public life as a New York billionaire, the president was able to resonate with working-class voters who had strayed from the Democratic party.
"He was born with a golden toilet seat," Scaramucci said. "His apartment looks like Louis XIV decorated it after smoking crystal meth."
And yet, Scaramucci said, his voters don't care.
"It's about him being able to galvanize blue-collar people to his message."
It's a well-worn truism of the last two years that Trump was able to peel off longtime Democratic voters in the Rust Belt who had felt neglected by the party, which had becoming unmoored from its working-class roots. Trump came in ー he "hijacked the Republican party," Scaramucci said ー and built a base that has stuck with him through [thick and thin](http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/08/01/trumps-approval-ratings-so-far-are-unusually-stable-and-deeply-partisan/).
"It's an historic political achievement whether you like the guy or not," Scaramucci said.
His advice to Democrats: "Go back and return to your roots and you'll have a fairer fight with the president in 2020."
But the "Mooch," while generally supportive of Trump, admitted he thought the inflammatory rhetoric and policies around immigration is becoming problematic for the administration's agenda. He blamed a cohort of current and former top White House officials ー Steve Bannon, John Kelly and Kirstjen Nielsen, among them ー that have promulgated the hard-line nationalist strain that Trump has embraced for Election Day.
"I'm not in love with it," said Scaramucci. "A lot of the president's family members are not in love with it."
The book has been [received](https://www.ft.com/content/e1cfca66-de86-11e8-9f04-38d397e6661c) by some as a job re-application for a position in the White House, but Scaramucci said he's not interested in that kind of comeback.
"I'm not a big fan of Washington," he said.
"However bad you think these people are ー trust me ー they're way worse."
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/scaramucci-on-midterms-washington-and-trump).
On this episode of Cheddar Innovates: CEO of Achieve Life Sciences discusses a new plant-based compound that's being used to fight nicotine addiction; President & CEO OF DiaMedica Therapeutics explains a new ischemic stroke treatment option that expands the window for effective therapy for stroke patients; Cheddar gets a look at Curiosity Stream's 'Asteroid Rush.'
Catching you up on today's entertainment headlines with the Tribeca Film Festival has kicked off in NYC, "Black Adam," starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson dropped its first full trailer, the musical "Come From Away" based on a true story set during 9/11 will be closing on Broadway this October, and more.
Survivors of Larry Nassar, including Olympian Simone Biles, are seeking $1 billion in damages from the FBI due to its failure to investigate the former gymnastics team doctor convicted of committing years of serial sexual abuse of minors. Jack Queen, a senior reporter at Law360, joined Cheddar News to break down the legal grounds of this case. "This is one of the biggest black eyes that the Bureau has faced in generations, quite frankly, and the FBI has taken full responsibility and admitted that it completely botched this investigation," he said. "So, there's a lot of pressure to settle."
The Elevate Prize Foundation is donating $10,000 to different grassroots organizations based on a theme every month to help scale their work, focusing on a different theme each time. Upcoming prizes will help uplift an organization supporting the LGBTQ community and one mobilizing to help end gun violence. The foundation's CEO Carolina Garcia Jayaram joined Cheddar to discuss the initiative and why it's important to uplift these grassroots organizations. "We are identifying social entrepreneurs around the world to help them scale their work. but the ultimate purpose of that is to create the first-ever fanbase for good," she said. "We're trying to make good famous and by inspiring people to think about the role they can play in doing good in the world."
With real estate being a largely male-dominated industry, Stephanie Shojaee, vice president and chief marketing officer at development company Shoma Group, joined Cheddar News to discuss how she took on the gender gap for women to achieve leadership roles, starting at her own company. “It's been very important to teach all the women that work here, especially the younger ones, that they shouldn't change themselves," she said. "You need to be happy with who you are and just keep breaking barriers."
We are already starting to feel the effects of summer. Heat waves in Texas and California are already sending temperatures soaring. That could spell trouble for the nation's power supply. there are new concerns about outages in many areas of the country. Cheddar's Shannon Lanier explains the two main causes of blackouts, and what states are doing to keep the lights on and the air conditioning running.
If you have been on the road this past year, you've probably seen more accidents on the road than you ever have. You're not wrong. Traffic fatalities are not only increasing they are hitting historic highs. Almost 43,000 people died in motor vehicle accidents in 2021. Cheddar's Shannon Lanier investigates - and finds out why.
U.S. stocks close Tuesday at session highs after a subpar start to the trading day. Tim Chubb, Chief Investment Officer at the wealth advisory firm, Girard, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss. 'We're starting to see the moderation of three core things -- we've seen the moderation of prices, we've seen the moderation of wage growth we've seen in the labor market, and we've also seen a moderation of job openings,' he says.
The victims from the USA gymnastics sexual abuse scandal continue to seek justice. Survivors of Larry Nassar are seeking more than one-billion dollars from the FBI for failing to stop the convicted sports doctor when the agency first received allegations. According to a report released by the Justice Department's Inspector General, FBI agents knew
in July of 2015 that Nassar was accused of abusing gymnasts; however, Nassar wasn't arrested until December of 2016. The group that filed the claim includes Olympic medalist Simone Biles and around 90 other women. Louise Radnofsky, sports reporter at The Wall Street Journal, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Tattoo artist Katrina "Kat Tat" Jackson, famous for starring in the VH1 hit series "Black Ink Crew: Chicago," is also the first Black woman to own a tattoo shop in Beverly Hills. She joined Cheddar News to discuss her trailblazing work, the stigma BIPOC tattoo artists face in the industry, and the way the space has changed for artists of color since her start. "In the beginning, I remember walking into a tattoo shop just like, hey, I wanna learn, I wanna be a tattoo artist and kind of just being laughed at, not taken seriously," she said. "Even with the tattoo conventions, a lot of African American tattoo artists were almost scared to go to conventions because it's not a welcoming environment."
