Ryan Lizza couldn't believe what he was hearing as the now-ousted White House communications director unloaded on Reince Priebus and Steve Bannon.
The reporter who published details of the notorious phone call that derailed Anthony Scaramucci’s brief political career is opening up about "the most unusual conversation I have ever had with a senior government official."
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The call, in which Scaramucci unloaded on fellow White House staffers in a foul-mouthed tirade with New Yorker reporter Ryan Lizza, was heard Thursday on the magazine's "New Yorker Radio Hour" podcast.
Scaramucci, who had been on the job less than a week, ripped former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus as "a f***ing paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac."
He also characterized Trump’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon, as a man "sucking his own c***" in regard to media attention.
On the podcast, Lizza said he was stunned when he hung up the phone.
"I just stood there shaking my head, saying, ‘That is the most unusual conversation I have ever had with a senior government official,'" he recalled. “I downloaded the audio and gave it the name on my computer, ‘Insane Scaramucci Interview.'"
Lizza added that he believes Scaramucci’s brief appointment to the position was part of a pattern from the Trump administration to relate to Trump's most enthusiastic supporters.
“So many politicians believe when they’re failing, they believe that the real problem is just a communications strategy — that if only the American public heard and saw what the most loyal supporters saw in the President, everything would be solved,” Lizza said.
"'Let Trump be Trump' is the cliché, right? That was Scaramucci’s communications strategy, and I think that’s how he helped convince the president that he should take over the communications shop, even though he had no experience doing this."
Scaramucci lasted just 10 days in the position and was let go after new Chief of Staff John Kelly announced his departure on Friday morning.
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