The following article by Kristine Phillips was posted on the Washington Post website July 23, 2017:
New White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci hasn’t always shared the political views of the administration he now serves.
But shortly after taking on the new job, the Wall Street financier announced that he’s deleting old tweets, some of which praised Hillary Clinton and showed that he’s at odds with his new boss on issues such as gun control, climate change, Islam and illegal immigration. Scaramucci said Saturday that his previous social media posts shouldn’t distract from his new job.
In an interview with Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday,” Scaramucci said his politics and ideals “don’t matter at all” and that he’s “subordinating” them to President Trump’s agenda. And in a heated exchange with CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union,” Scaramucci dismissed accusations that he’s willing to suppress his ideals for the sake of power.
“That’s a ridiculous Washington sort of narrative. Number 1, it’s totally untrue. Number 2, all I’m doing by deleting tweets is sending people a message … Let me tell you one of the things I really hate about Washington. We have this political purity test on policy. So if I’m for something and then I’m against something, then, all of a sudden, I’m a hypocrite,” Scaramucci said, adding that leaders like Winston Churchill and Ronald Reagan changed their political views and switched parties.
Scaramucci’s old tweets began resurfacing Friday. Some have been deleted, but they’ve since been immortalized by other Twitter users:
In a pair of 2012 tweets, one of which has not yet been deleted, he said that the United States has too many guns and that he’s “always been for strong gun control laws.”
“We (the USA) has 5% of the world’s population but 50% of the world’s guns,” he wrote in the deleted tweet. “Enough is enough. It is just common sense it apply more controls.”
Laura Goldman, who said she is friends with Scaramucci, came to his defense on the policy matter Saturday, saying his 2012 tweet advocating gun control was a response to her.
“He answered because that’s the kind of guy he is. … He shouldn’t be crucified for his politeness in answering tweets to a friend before he starts his job,” Goldman said in an email to The Washington Post.
Scaramucci also praised former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in 2011 for staying out of the “Trump spectacle” and called former House speaker Newt Gingrich, a Trump ally, an “odd guy” who’s “so smart with no judgment.”
A few other tweets still appear to be on Scaramucci’s account.
In an 2012 post, he appeared to be advocating liberal causes, describing himself as “for Gay Marriage, against the death penalty, and Pro Choice.”
That same year, he said: “I like Hillary. Have to go with the best athlete. We need to turn this around.”
In a 2016 tweet that appears to contradict Trump’s previous statements against Islam, Scaramucci said:
He railed against climate-change deniers:
“You can take steps to combat climate change without crippling the economy. The fact many people still believe CC is a hoax is disheartening,” he tweeted in 2016.
And against Trump’s plan for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border:
“Walls don’t work. Never have never will. The Berlin Wall 1961-1989 don’t fall for it,” he tweeted in 2015.
He also appeared to favor another former Republican presidential candidate over Trump:
In a 2015 Fox Business Network interview, Scaramucci called Trump a “hack” and a bully and said he didn’t like how the then-presidential candidate talked about women.
“He’s a hack politician. … I’ll tell you who he’s going to be president of — you can tell Donald I said this — the Queens County bullies association,” he said.
Now Scaramucci has shifted from criticizing Trump to telling reporters several times that he loves the president. He also apologized for calling Trump a hack and said the president still reminds him of his previous comments.
“I should have never said that about him,” Scaramucci said Friday at his first news briefing, adding later: “Mr. President, if you’re listening, I personally apologize for the 50th time for saying that.”
Trump weighed in Saturday morning, saying Scaramucci wanted to endorse him but didn’t know he was going to run. But as The Post’s Aaron Blake pointed out, Trump had been a candidate for a month when Scaramucci called him a hack.