Scaramucci Says He Won’t Vote for Trump, GOP May Need Substitute

(Bloomberg) -- Anthony Scaramucci, who lasted only 11 days as Donald Trump’s communications director, said he won’t support the president’s re-election and suggested the Republican Party consider a different 2020 nominee.

“At this time I cannot support his re-election and we need to think about someone new to be at the top of the ticket,” Scaramucci said in an interview Monday. He doesn’t intend to support a Democrat.

The loyalist’s break with Trump came after the president criticized Scaramucci on Twitter over the weekend. Scaramucci said that he hadn’t been in contact with the president since faulting Trump for his handling of recent mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, and for comments about four minority congresswomen.

“He is not going to call. He knows I am right,” Scaramucci said.

The White House rejected Scaramucci’s criticism.

“He worked at the White House for less than two weeks and is certainly no expert on this president,” White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said. “This is all so self-serving on his part and the media plays right into it.”

Over the weekend, Trump attacked his former communications director following Scaramucci’s criticism.

“Anthony Scaramucci, who was quickly terminated (11 days) from a position that he was totally incapable of handling, now seems to do nothing but television as the all time expert on ‘President Trump,”’ Trump tweeted. “Like many other so-called television experts, he knows very little about me.”

The back-and-forth followed what Scaramucci termed “arguably one of the worst weeks” of Trump’s presidency.

“I think you have to consider a change at the top of the ticket when someone is acting like this,” the financier told CNN on Monday.

“The racially charged comments, the divisive tweeting,” Scaramucci added, “is not helping the country.”

The mass shootings in Ohio and Texas that killed 31 people have fueled criticism that Trump hasn’t done enough to stem gun violence and has instead fostered extremism. Trump visited hospitals in each city last week, excluding press from those visits but releasing campaign-style photos and videos.

Scaramucci said in a cable television interview Thursday that Trump drew negative news coverage of his trip because he made the hospital visits about himself rather than about comforting the gun massacre victims.

“So, look, the president didn’t do well on the trip. He probably would be mad at somebody for saying that,” he said on MSNBC.

“Maybe he’ll tweet something negative about somebody for saying he didn’t do well, but the facts are he did not do well on the trip because if the trip is being made about him and not the demonstration of compassion and love and caring and empathy for those people,” Scaramucci said Thursday. “Then it becomes a catastrophe for him, the administration, and it’s also a bad reflection on the country.”

On Monday, the former White House aide went on to question whether Trump should be sent back -- echoing the president’s attacks on the four minority congresswomen.

“By the way, bullying is very anti-American. Should we send him back?” he said. “The dam is going to break. People are embarrassed now.”

--With assistance from Justin Sink.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jennifer Jacobs in Washington at jjacobs68@bloomberg.net;Terrence Dopp in Washington at tdopp@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael Shepard at mshepard7@bloomberg.net, Justin Blum, Elizabeth Wasserman

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