Anthony Scaramucci made the talk show rounds on Sunday following last week’s shake-up of President Trump’s senior team. The newly-appointed communications director shared his plans for overhauling the White House’s communications, including an aggressive crackdown on leaks.
Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” he told Jake Tapper, “Tomorrow, I’m going to be having a meeting with the communications staff and say, ‘Hey, I don’t like these leaks. And so we’re going to stop the leaks. And, if we don’t stop the leaks, I’m going to stop you.'” He summarized his zero-tolerance policy on CBS’ “Face the Nation” in a somewhat punny manner: “We’re as strong as our weakest leak.” And, on Fox News, he told Chris Wallace, “I will take dramatic action to stop those leaks.” The Mooch made his message clear: If you leak, you’re fired.
But leaks aren’t the only thing the Mooch has on his mind. He also wants to repair the White House’s relationship with the press, according to Buzzfeed. “In the back of my mind I have to call on CNN and send a message to [CNN President Jeff] Zucker that we are back in business,” he said, referring to his decision to call on CNN White House correspondent Sara Murray during Friday’s press briefing.
Speaking of press briefings, the Mooch is hoping to bring back the on-camera press briefing. Behind the lectern on Friday, he said he’d speak to Trump about the format of the briefing now that there’s a new press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders. On-camera press briefings were few and far between over the last month, and this might be his olive branch to the press. Though as my CJR colleague wrote, “we need to hear from the president himself.” More on the Mooch below.
- A recap of Scaramucci’s weekend TV rounds from Maggie Haberman.
- Is Scaramucci the right answer to the wrong problem? The Atlantic thinks so.
- Scaramucci wants to smooth things over with the press.
Other notable stories
- Kellyanne Conway and I have one thing in common: our love of corgis. According to Buzzfeed’s Charlie Warzel, Conway followed two corgi-related Twitter accounts on Tuesday evening. How did he know? A new Twitter bot, @TrumpsAlert, which lets you track the social media activity of the Trump family and some White House officials.
- The Washington Post’s Margaret Sullivan wrote about how The Atlantic’s changed, and how it hasn’t, over the last 160 years.
- He’s “the Annie Leibowitz of the alt-right.” At least, that’s how Matthew Kassel described Peter Duke in the New York Times Magazine this weekend. His subjects include familiar names like Mike Cernovich, Milo Yiannopoulos, and Charles Johnson.
- The New York Times asked Fox News’ morning show “Fox & Friends” for an apology over the weekend. The paper took issue with what it called a “malicious and inaccurate segment” about intelligence leaks and the Islamic State that aired on Saturday.
- Joseph Rago, a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial writer, died last week at the age of 34. Here’s a collection of his best work curated by his colleagues at the Wall Street Journal.
- Maggie Haberman spoke with David Remick about being “Trump’s favorite foe” (and more) on The New Yorker Radio Hour.
P.S.
- CJR’s editor and publisher Kyle Pope is speaking about press freedom under Trump at a panel organized by the House Judiciary Committee later today. Watch the livestream starting at 3 pm EST on the House Judiciary Democrats’ Facebook page.
Meg Dalton is a freelance journalist and audio producer based in Connecticut. She's reported and edited for CJR, PBS NewsHour, Energy News Network, Architectural Digest, MediaShift, Hearst Connecticut newspapers, and more. Follow her on Twitter: @megdalts. Find her on Twitter @megdalts.
