WASHINGTON -- Former White House aide Anthony Scaramucci tore into the chief of staff Thursday, accusing him of blocking his access to President Donald Trump and driving away Trump's most important advisers.
"Does the president want to lose everyone because of General Jackass?" Scaramucci said Thursday in an interview with Bloomberg News, using a derogatory name to refer to Chief of Staff John Kelly.
Scaramucci said he now fears Kelly will thwart his bid to sell his stake in SkyBridge Capital to China's HNA Group Co. The sale has been stuck in the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., which reviews foreign acquisitions of domestic businesses for security risks.
"Let's see what he says about that," Scaramucci said. "That'll be the next food fight. 'Say, his company is before [the committee] right now. Are you going to block that deal?'"
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Scaramucci reached the agreement to sell his stake to the Chinese conglomerate in January 2017 while he was shedding business conflicts to take a job in the Trump administration.
A White House official who requested anonymity to respond to Scaramucci's accusations said Kelly wouldn't interfere with a national security review because of a personal dispute, adding that transactions are judged against established standards. Scaramucci hasn't been blacklisted from White House grounds and would be allowed access for legitimate, official business on the same basis as other former staff members, the official said.
Scaramucci's fury with Trump's chief of staff has been well-known since Scaramucci's dismissal on Kelly's first day of managing the White House. Scaramucci lost the job less than two weeks after he had been hired, largely over a tirade against Steve Bannon, the chief strategist at the time.
Scaramucci has emerged as one of Kelly's most high-profile critics at a time when some other Trump loyalists are questioning whether the president is being ill-served by the chief of staff, who has limited Trump's access to some of his closest allies from the campaign.
"There will be a further evacuation of talent," Scaramucci said, adding of Kelly, "The guy is a bad dude."
"Fear and intimidation doesn't work in a civilian organization. If he had any honor, he'd resign," he said.
Scaramucci also said he doesn't mind being quoted insulting Kelly. "At least I'm an honest, front-stabbing dude," he said.
After early positive views that Kelly established order in the Trump White House, there have been a series of staff departures. Among them are communications director Hope Hicks who announced Wednesday that she is resigning and Staff Secretary Rob Porter who left amid allegations of domestic violence.
Scaramucci claims that Kelly has been blocking his access to the president. He said he was prevented from attending a gathering that Trump went to with business executives at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He also said he was blocked after having been invited to a meeting at the White House with a top Trump aide.
The White House official denied the accusation that Kelly prevented Scaramucci from receiving an invitation to the Davos event.
Scaramucci called for Kelly's resignation last month after the disclosures that Porter kept his job with access to top secret information despite a background investigation that revealed allegations of domestic abuse by two of Porter's ex-wives.
"Based on FBI testimony, WH Chief of Staff John Kelly almost certainly knew about credible allegations of domestic abuse against Rob Porter at least 6 months ago -- then recently forced others to lie about that timeline," Scaramucci tweeted Feb. 13. "Inexcusable. Kelly must resign."
Scaramucci also took aim at Kelly during a brief interview on Fox News on Wednesday night, then again during an appearance on CNN on Thursday morning.
"You have no idea how many people from the White House have texted me this morning saying thank you for saying that," Scaramucci said. "Hopefully the president will wake up and knock off the nonsense."
"If you want to kill Trump loyalists because you're into martial law, go ahead and do that," Scaramucci said. "But it's not helping the president."
Information for this article was contributed by Toluse Olorunnipa of Bloomberg News.
A Section on 03/02/2018