Scaramucci on The New Yorker Interview That Got Him Fired
*By Alisha Haridasani*
Anthony Scaramucci, the former White House communications director, said The New Yorker magazine’s Ryan Lizza acted “inappropriately” when he published [an article](https://www.newyorker.com/news/ryan-lizza/anthony-scaramucci-called-me-to-unload-about-white-house-leakers-reince-priebus-and-steve-bannon) that essentially led to Scaramucci’s firing last year.
“I was building a rapport with him, I was talking to him very colloquially,” Scaramucci said in an interview with Cheddar’s J.D. Durkin.
In that article, Lizza describes a profane on-the-record phone call with Scaramucci in which he criticizes Reince Priebus, the former White House chief of Staff, and Steve Bannon, a former top presidential adviser. A few days later, Scaramucci was out of his job, too.
Scaramucci said that Lizza has tried to contact him since the article was published, asking if he would speak to Lizza's class at Georgetown University.
"What is this guy -- nuts?” Scaramucci said.
Though he only lasted 11 days in his job, Scaramucci said he made important changes at the White House.
“I only did, like, three things right when I was there,” Scaramucci said, adding that it was his decision to allow cameras back into the daily news briefings. (The former White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, had barred live coverage of his daily briefings.)
“I’m a big believer in the First Amendment,” he said.
And it was he who helped convince President Trump to pickSarah Huckabee Sanders to be the White House press secretary. “I think she’s done a great job,” he said.
Scaramucci said he's still in touch with the president, who calls him up to talk politics and discuss personal issues.
“I’ve probably talked to him 12 or so times,” since leaving the White House, Scaramucci said. “But again, I don’t want to exaggerate my relationship.”
For full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/anthony-scaramucci-had-leakers-on-the-run-during-his-11-days-at-the-white-house).
Peter Zalzal, associate vice president for clean air strategies at the Environmental Defense Fund, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group, joined Cheddar to discuss the Biden Administration's unveiling of stricter fuel-efficiency standards for new automobiles. "The administration estimated that these rules will reduce about 2.5 billion tons of climate pollution by 2050, and using less fuel also means that we have to go to the gas pump less often. And so it means we save money, thousands of dollars in avoided fuel costs each year for consumers," he noted.
The relatively robust March jobs report showed that despite the low unemployment rate, Black, Hispanic, and women job seekers are still having difficulty finding work. William M. Rodgers III, the vice president and director of the Institute for Economic Equity at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis noted that participation rates in the labor force ticked up for minorities, adding to other positive signs of growth. He also spoke to Cheddar News to discuss further the jobs figures, the state of the labor market, and rising inflation.
U.S. markets opened higher to kick off the second quarter, despite a miss on the March Jobs Report. The economy added $431,000 in the month, slightly lower than the $490,000 analysts had expected. The unemployment rate also ticked down to 3.6% from 3.8%. Kevin Simpson, Founder & Chief Investment Officer, Capital Wealth Planning joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss.
President Biden is going after billionaires in his 2023 budget request to congress. The proposal would establish a 20% minimum tax rate on all households worth more than $100 million, as well as raise the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%. Rhett Buttle, Small Business for America's Future Senior Advisor, Business Policy Expert & Biden Campaign Business Advisor, breaks down the proposal, what it aims to accomplish, and how small businesses might feel about it.
The Biden administration has announced the U.S. will accept up to 100,000 refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine and provide more than 1 billion dollars in new funding for the growing humanitarian crisis. The move comes as President Biden meets with his western counterparts in Europe to demonstrate a united front against Russia and show support for Ukraine. Altagracia Pierre-Outerbridge, Immigration Attorney for Outerbridge Law, explains how this is going to work.
The DOJ has endorsed an antitrust bill targeting tech giants like Apple, Amazon, Meta, and Google. The legislation would ban the companies from favoring their own products and services over their competitor's, making it more difficult them to dominate the marketplace. Greg Day, Assistant Professor of Legal Studies at the University of Georgia, breaks down the bill and its potential impact on anti-competition in the tech sector.
Catching you up with what you need to know on Apr 1, 2022, with Ukrainians hoping to flee the besieged city of Mariupol with a ceasefire is in place, President Biden orders the release of oil from U.S.reserves, LGBT activists suing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis over the "Don't Say Gay" Law, U.S. passports offering an "x" option for gender, and more.
America’s employers extended a streak of robust hiring in March, adding 431,000 jobs in a sign of the economy’s resilience in the face of a still-destructive pandemic and the highest inflation in 40 years.
