Scaramucci on his firing: 'Obviously I paid the consequences'
The former White House communications director talks about his dismissal.
— -- Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci said that he "absolutely" made mistakes before being fired after just 11 days in his role.
During his first televised interview since his dismissal from the White House, Scaramucci talked to ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos about the bombastic phone call that he had with New Yorker reporter Ryan Lizza, during which he criticized a number of his then-colleagues, including then-Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and Chief Strategist Steve Bannon.
Scaramucci today said that “for the record, I thought that was off the record.”
He called Lizza’s decision to record the call “a very deceitful thing that he did.”
"He wrote the article like I was unhinged and overly emotional and bombastic," Scaramucci said of Lizza.
Scaramucci said that "the words were mischaracterized in the original article," before noting "he's not misquoting me but he is mischaracterizing me."
“Obviously I paid the consequences,” Scaramucci told Stephanopoulos, later noting that he feels he made “an unforced error.”
When asked if he thought he deserved to be fired, Scaramucci said that "well obviously I wished they would've given me a bar of soap and told me to wash my mouth out in the bathroom and move on."
He said that with the addition of retired Gen. John Kelly as the new chief of staff after Priebus's dismissal, "it was going to be very hard for me to stay in the job."
"My feeling about the whole thing is that what happened was sort of meant to happen," he said.
Related Topics
Related Stories
ABC News Live