'America This Week': Scaramucci blasts Trump, says 'everyone's going to break from him'
WASHINGTON (Sinclair Broadcast Group) — "America This Week" host Eric Bolling sat down with Anthony Scaramucci to find out why the former Trump loyalist and ex-White House communications director says he is "done" with the president. In a separate interview, Bolling spoke to the current White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham who chalked up Scaramucci's criticism of the president to hurt feelings.
Scaramucci, a longtime friend of President Donald Trump, said the final straw came after he refused to defend the president on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher. Trump responded with a series of angry tweets over the weekend.
"I'm done with the guy," Scaramucci told Bolling, saying the tweets were a sign that Trump is "completely crazy."
"He's alienated every single person in the White House. He doesn't talk to anybody in the White House. People are afraid of him," he said. "He’s mentally declining."
Going further, Scaramucci predicted that Trump "will not run in 2020."
Scaramucci is one of dozens of officials and staffers who have either been fired or resigned from the Trump administration due to personality clashes or policy differences.
The ex-White House staffer predicted that even the most loyal Trump supporters will eventually leave. "Everyone's going to break from him because he does it to everybody. He turns on everybody," he stressed. "If you say one syllable out of place he'll turn on you because that's what a demagogue does."
Scaramucci's break from Trump has received a lot of publicity. The primary criticism of the president was for his "racist, inflammatory tweets" and divisive rhetoric.
"He's creating a corrosive socially dividing cancer in the country...He's sending a license to hate," Scaramucci told Bolling. "The economic policies are not worth that."
Asked if he believes Trump is racist, the New York entrepreneur responded, "No. I think he’s a grade above racism. He’s such a narcissist that he doesn’t see race and so everybody’s like an object in the room."
Scaramucci went on to describe Trump as being "transactional" with people when he sees a benefit from it. "Of course he's not racist, he can't see people for what they are or have any empathy for them."
After a series of appearances this week on HBO, CNN and MSNBC, former White House press secretary Sean Spicer took a swipe at Scaramucci telling Fox News that the "left-wing media" was using him for a "soundbite."
Scaramucci shot back, colorfully describing the former press secretary as "Liar Spice from the Spice Girls."
The sudden shift away from Trump has opened Scaramucci to criticism that he is seeking publicity or looking for a position as a news commentator.
President Trump suggested as much with his weekend tweets. White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham agreed.
"It's just about getting more TV time," she told Bolling. Describing Scaramucci's split from Trump as "nonsensical," Grisham noted, "His feelings just seem to be hurt." She described Scaramucci's claims about Trump's mental health as "ridiculous."
In response to Scaramucci predicting other Trump loyalists would "break" from the president, Grishman responded, "There's no indication that he's right about any of this." She continued, "He seems to have all of these people who are going to turn on the president, yet he can't name who they are."
Scaramucci also described being "ejected" from his post at the White House after 11 days. His firing was reportedly related to a profanity-laced interview he gave to a reporter, but Grisham said the issues went deeper. "There were some other things happening at the White House that we won't talk about that he had to be removed and the president removed him quickly," she told Bolling.
After slightly less than a month on the job, Grishman made her first television appearance on "America This Week."
Asked whether the White House would bring back the daily press briefings, Grisham deferred to Trump to make that decision adding, "The president is his best spokesperson."
"The president is so accessible," she said, citing near-daily press gaggles at Marine One, the Oval Office and recently at his residence in Bedminster, New Jersey. "He is the most accessible president in modern history, so I don't know what any of the press could complain about."
Grisham said she is doing what she can to be available to reporters while serving as White House press secretary, communications director and press secretary to the first lady. "We're just a different White House."
"America This Week's" segment "Pulse of America" featured reports from Sinclair Broadcast Group's national reporters and affiliated stations around the country.
Chief political correspondent Scott Thuman reported from the Iowa State Fair where 2020 presidential hopefuls descended on the first-in-the-nation caucus state. The voters Thuman spoke to understood their outsized role in either catapulting or crushing a candidacy, which is why they came to the fair prepared with questions and ready to get real with the candidates.
From Iowa City, KGAN's Nick Weig joined Eric Bolling to discuss which of the candidates made the strongest impression on Iowa voters.
In Texas, Joe Galli with KABB and WOAI reported on bulletproof backpacks, what many parents see as a must-have item on their back-to-school shopping list. Galli tested two products on the market, a soft bulletproof insert and a hard armor insert. Both products stopped bullets fired from a handgun but neither could stand up against an assault-style rifle typically seen in mass shootings.
In Washington, national correspondent Kristine Frazao reported on the apparent suicide of accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein who died in the custody of a federally operated prison. Frazao found warning signs in the Bureau of Prisons that went unaddressed for years, including overcrowding, understaffing and the use of untrained support staff to monitor prisoners. These problems appear to have coincided at the Manhattan Metropolitan Correctional Center, where Epstein was held.
Inside Your World investigative reporter Mark Hyman traveled to Charlottesville, Virginia on the second anniversary of the deadly clashes between white nationalists and counterprotesters. He reviewed the city's original plan to keep the two sides separate and how it changed at the last minute to allow both sides to come within close proximity. The decision was "fatally flawed," according to independent investigators.
White House correspondent for the Washington Post Anne Gearan joined Bolling for "Balls and Strikes," a weekly segment featuring debate and discussion on the state of national news media.
"America This Week" is an hour-long program featuring interviews with lawmakers, administration officials, and politicians with unique insights into the issues that matter to Americans. The show also features news stories from Sinclair Broadcast Group's stations around the country to give viewer's reports on relevant events from right where they are happening.
The program streams on all Sinclair sites every Wednesday at 7 p.m. EDT/ 4 p.m. PDT.
