As Twitter War Deepens, The Mooch Calls Trump an 'Unmitigated Disaster'
President Trump escalated his war of words with Anthony Scaramucci on Monday, calling the Mooch "highly unstable" in an early morning tweet storm. Scaramucci joined Cheddar to unpack the string of insults.
The Twitter tirades are “malicious, bullying of individual citizens, which is a form of fascism,” Scaramucci said. He also slammed Trump for attacking him while the “world is crumbling around him,” citing a slew of policy failures, such as the failure to sign a trade deal with China.
Scaramucci is the founder of Skybridge Capital and served as the White House communications director for 11 days in 2017. His brief tenure ended after he gave an expletive-filled interview disparaging other Trump administration officials.
When asked about his decision to accept the job in Trump's administration, Scaramucci said, “I made a mistake … but I think it is important to call out what’s going on for what it exactly is. And I intend to continue to do that."
Scaramucci also mentioned that he is working on an effort to find a Republican primary challenger to Trump in 2020.
"Let's try to re-engineer, re-establish where the Republican Party needs to go," although he said he is still trying to find potential challengers to the president.
Trump also drew the ire of the Mooch on Monday for attacking his wife — “a complete and total civilian,” Scaramucci said.
Matt Hayden, vice president of govtech solutions at Exiger and a former assistant secretary of cyber at Department of Homeland Security, joined Cheddar to discuss the surprise phone call initiated by Russian President Vladimir Putin to President Joe Biden, ahead of January security talks about the rising tensions over Ukraine. "We're hoping to hear that we're able to talk about the aggression and the leadup of the Ukrainian militarization," Hayden said. "But we're also looking to hear is how the Kremlin leveraged their talking points to try to test their negotiation stance with the United States leading into this January 10th meeting."
The No Surprises Act begins implementation on January 1, 2022. The legislation is meant to curb the practice of unexpected billing for care from providers the patient was unaware were out-of-network from their insurance. Patricia Kelmar, director of health care campaigns for U.S. PIRG joined Cheddar to describe the hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars charged to unsuspecting patients and how things will change under the new law. "If we are picking an in-network doctor and an in-network hospital, we should not see those added costs from anesthesiologists, radiologists, scrub-in surgeons," she said. "The other area it protects you is in air ambulances — not ground ambulances, unfortunately — but the helicopters or the airplanes you might need to transport you in an emergency situation."
President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladmir Putin are expected to have another conversation surrounding escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine. Ariel Cohen, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, joined Cheddar's Ken Buffa to discuss the ongoing tensions and why Putin's request for a conversation with Biden comes now. "This is very serious. This is the worst security crisis we had since the collapse of the Soviet Union," Cohen told Cheddar.
Stocks closed mixed on Wednesday, but two indexes - the Dow and the S&P 500 - ended the session with a new record. Akshata Bailkeri, Equity Analyst at Bruderman Asset Management, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where she says there is a consensus for robust consumer spreading in 2022, especially as the Omicron variant is proving to be milder than other COVID-19 strains.
John Quelch, Dean of Miami Herbert Business School, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he says the retail giant is acting in accordance to President Biden's new law banning goods from China's Xinjiang region. Quelch also elaborates on the importance of China in Walmart's overall strategy.
