"The Mooch" Threatens To Go Nuclear And "Fire Everybody" If The White House Leaks Don't Stop

On Tuesday the new White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci threatened to "fire everybody" in order to stop leaks to the media. “I’m going to fire everybody, that’s how I’m going to do it,” Scaramucci told reporters, according The Washington Post. “You’re either going to stop leaking or you’re going to get fired.”

Wearing blue-tinted aviator glasses, Scaramucci spoke to a few members of the media from the White House driveway on Tuesday. “If they don’t stop leaking, I’m going to put them out on Pennsylvania Avenue — it’s a very clear thing,” he said. “You want to sell postcards to the tourists outside the gate or you want to work in the West Wing? What do you want to do? If you want to work in the West Wing, you’ve got to stop leaking.”

Scaramucci was appointed communications director late last week, despite the objections of Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and Press Secretary Sean Spicer, who resigned in protest.

The Trump administration has been plagued by leaks since the new president took office in January. “There are leakers in the comms shop; there are leakers everywhere,” Scaramucci told reporters, echoing what the president himself has said about the importance of loyalty. “And leaking is atrocious. It’s outrageous. It’s unpatriotic. It damages the president personally. It damages the institution of the presidency, and I don’t like it. I just don’t like it.”

When asked about a particular member of Trump's press staff, Scaramucci said the he was indeed considering firing that person, as media outlets had reported. “This is actually a terrible thing,” Scaramucci said. “The fact that you guys know about it before he does really upsets me as a human being and as a Roman Catholic, you got that? So I should have the opportunity, if I have to let someone go, to let the person go in a very humane, dignified way.”

The first member of the White House press department to leave after Scaramucci's appointment was assistant press secretary Michael Short, who resigned on Tuesday after reports emerged that Scaramucci planned to fire him. Short, however, maintained that he never leaked any information. “Allegations I ever leaked anything are demonstrably false,” Short said, according to POLITICO.

It seems like Scaramucci, a financier who once worked at Goldman Sachs, is determined to stop the media from reporting administration-related scoops no matter what. “If I’ve got to get this thing down to me and Sarah Huckabee,” he said, “then the leaking will stop.”