Stephen Miller Is Reportedly In The Running For Scaramucci's Old Job At The White House

President Donald Trump has barely been in office for six months and already he"s seen three communications directors come and go – Mike Dubke, Sean Spicer (who handled its duties when the post was vacant) and Anthony Scaramucci.

And now sources inside the White House are telling Axios that Senior Policy Adviser Stephen Miller is in the running for the communications director job after his on-camera thrashings of CNN’s Jim Acosta and the NYT’s Glenn Thrush elicited widespread praise from conservatives last week and reportedly made an impression on the president.

To be sure, the Trump administration is still “in the name-gathering process” and Miller isn’t even the top contender for the job. Miller faces some opposition, including from members of the Republican establishment, who believe he’s “unpersuasive.” But the fact that he made Acosta look like a “jacka**” in front of the whole country has helped him in Trump’s estimation. 

Miller’s experience working with the media began during his stint as an aide to then-Senator Jeff Sessions. At the time, he “was effectively an adjunct of the Breitbart team,” according to Axios. During his tenure in the White House, he’s already helped shape the administration’s communications strategy by working on some of Trump’s biggest speeches, including the “American Carnage” inaugural address, which he co-wrote with Steve Bannon.

Miller also has a reputation for “bugging reporters at all hours with his story pitches, and seemingly had a direct line to Matt Drudge. The running joke was that the Sessions" office had a permanent lease on at least one of the prized top-left Drudge links.”

As Axios notes, the quality that Trump values most is an aide"s ability to make him look good on television – particularly if they can do it at the expense of a CNN or NYT reporter, like Miller did.

Even Thrush admits that Miller is obviously qualified.

Been rumored forever. This makes all the sense in the world. https://t.co/HjvKGelYvX

— Glenn Thrush (@GlennThrush) August 5, 2017

But the most important question, which Axios doesn’t address, is what’s the relationship like between Miller and Trump’s new Chief of Staff John Kelly, who was widely credited with ousting Scaramucci from the communications director post last month after he had held the job for only 10 days. Miller’s knack for currying favor with the Jared and Ivanka faction in the West Wing has helped him establish a reputation as someone who’s widely liked and respected in the administration, particularly for his “rainman” like ability to recall immigration statistics.

Still, does he have the "General"s" respect? His chances of lasting in the job more than just a few weeks depend on it.
 

Scaramucci Listed As Dead In Latest Harvard Alumni Directory

It was a bad day for Anthony Scaramucci: first the Mooch was fired just ten days after he was first hired, in the brief process getting served with divorce papers and missing the birth of his baby while unleashing a bizarre rant for the ages, and then shortly after, his now former boss, the president of the US, the same one who earlier said there was no chaos at the White House, tweeted that it was "A great day at the White House"

In this case, one of the responses to the Trump tweet was substantially more informative than the original:

In 10 days you destroyed @Scaramucci’s hedge fund, his career, his marriage, and made him miss the birth of his child.
 
Then you fired him.

— Jules Suzdaltsev (@jules_su) July 31, 2017

And then, adding insult to pink slip, CBS reported that Harvard Law School apologized for erroneously listing Anthony Scaramucci as dead in its new alumni directory.

No, really: a directory mailed to alumni this week included an asterisk by the name of Scaramucci, a 1989 graduate of the Cambridge, Massachusetts, university, indicating he had died.

A statement from the law school apologizes for the error and says it will be corrected in future editions. It doesn"t provide an explanation for the error. The directory is published every five years and is available only to alumni of the Ivy League law school.

If there was any consolation for Scaramucci, it came from People Magazine, which reported that the lawyer representing the estranged wife of ousted White House communications director denied the NY Post report that the couple ended their marriage because of President Trump.

"I don’t know where that came from, but it is not accurate. It is a false fact,” divorce lawyer Jill Stone, who represents Deidre Ball, told People magazine on Monday.

So at least that wasn"t Trump"s fault. And now that he is once again out of the public eye, Scaramucci may finally get what he requested just 48 hours ago: a plea to leave his family out of it.

Leave civilians out of this. I can take the hits, but I would ask that you would put my family in your thoughts and prayers & nothing more.

— Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) July 28, 2017

To top off an emotional day for all, here is some humor from The Onion:

Following his abrupt dismissal just 10 days after being named White House communications director, Anthony Scaramucci reportedly received an outpouring of sympathetic texts Monday from friends and family expressing that they were “so fuckin’ sorry to hear about this shit.”

“My deepest motherfuckin’ condolences, Tony, it’s terrible to hear you got shit-canned by these ass-munching cocks in D.C.,” read a text message in part, just one of dozens sent by old buddies at Goldman Sachs, current business partners at SkyBridge Capital, and extended family in New Jersey in response to his “goddamn bullshit” dismissal.

“Sorry to hear those bitches gave you the fucking ax, Mooch. That jackass [John] Kelly got no fucking clue what a good fuckin’ dude you are. Just know your mother and I always got your fucking back.” At press time, Scaramucci’s New York office was reportedly filled with flower arrangements and handwritten cards lamenting that this was “absolute fucking trash.”

Scaramucci: "Priebus Is A F**king Paranoid Schizophrenic", Slams "Cocksucker" Bannon, Wants To "Kill" Leakers

Update: After what was either (i) his first White House nervous breakdown or (ii) a carefully disguised distraction intended to give the media something other than Russia to discuss on this weekend"s political talk show circuit, Anthony Scaramucci has just issued the following statement via Twitter:

I sometimes use colorful language. I will refrain in this arena but not give up the passionate fight for @realDonaldTrump"s agenda. #MAGA

— Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) July 27, 2017

* * *

Details have emerged about Anthony Scaramucci"s bizarre overnight breakdown, in which he accused Trump"s chief of staff Reince Priebus of leaking details of a private dinner he had with Trump,  Melania, Sean Hannity and Bill Shine, as well as accusing the former GOP head of a "felony" leak of Scaramucci"s financial disclosures. 

The New Yorker"s Ryan Lizza has released the details of a phone call he received on Wednesday night from Scaramucci, after tweeting shortly prior that "Trump is dining tonight w/Sean Hannnity, Bill Shine (former Fox News executive), & Anthony Scaramucci, per to 2 knowledgeable sources." As discussed earlier, Scaramucci was furious that Lizza found out about the dinner and convinced that Priebus was the one who told Lizza about it, tried to get an admission out of Lizza. After threatening to fire the entire White House communication staff if Lizza did not reveal the identity of his source, Trump"s new communications chief furiously blasted that “Reince is a fucking paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac,” and claimed that Priebus would be asked to resign.

“Who leaked that to you?” he asked. I said I couldn’t give him that information. He responded by threatening to fire the entire White House communications staff. “What I’m going to do is, I will eliminate everyone in the comms team and we’ll start over,” he said. I laughed, not sure if he really believed that such a threat would convince a journalist to reveal a source. He continued to press me and complain about the staff he’s inherited in his new job. “I ask these guys not to leak anything and they can’t help themselves,” he said. “You’re an American citizen, this is a major catastrophe for the American country. So I’m asking you as an American patriot to give me a sense of who leaked it.”

* * *

He reiterated that Priebus would resign soon, and he noted that he told Trump that he expected Priebus to launch a campaign against him. “He didn’t get the hint that I was reporting directly to the President,” he said. “And I said to the President here are the four or five things that he will do to me.” His list of allegations included leaking the Hannity dinner and the details from his financial-disclosure form.

After this gentle gambit failed to generate the desired outcome, Scaramucci then warned that “they’ll all be fired by me,” he said of the White House communications staff. “I fired one guy the other day. I have three to four people I’ll fire tomorrow. I’ll get to the person who leaked that to you. Reince Priebus—if you want to leak something—he’ll be asked to resign very shortly.”

The enraged Scaramucci continued chanelling Priebus: “‘Oh, Bill Shine is coming in. Let me leak the fucking thing and see if I can cock-block these people the way I cock-blocked Scaramucci for six months.’ ”

Earlier in the day, the fund manager insinuated on twitter that Trump’s top aide was behind the “leak” of his financial disclosure forms, which subsequently it turned out were not leaked, but we public for anyone to access.

As Lizza notes, while Scaramucci’s first public appearance as communications director was a slick and conciliatory, suggesting it was time for the White House to turn a page, since then, he has become obsessed with leaks and threatened to fire staffers if he discovers that they have given unauthorized information to reporters. Michael Short, a White House press aide considered close to Priebus, resigned on Tuesday after Scaramucci publicly spoke about firing him. Meanwhile, several damaging stories about Scaramucci have appeared in the press, and he blamed Priebus for most of them.

Separately, Scaramucci also lashed out at Trump"s chief strategist Stephen Bannon in the same phone call.

“I’m not Steve Bannon, I’m not trying to suck my own cock,” he said, speaking of Trump’s chief strategist. “I’m not trying to build my own brand off the fucking strength of the President. I’m here to serve the country.”

Lizza"s assessment of the bizarre behavior: "I got the sense that Scaramucci’s campaign against leakers flows from his intense loyalty to Trump. Unlike other Trump advisers, I’ve never heard him say a bad word about the President. “What I want to do is I want to fucking kill all the leakers and I want to get the President’s agenda on track so we can succeed for the American people,” he told me."

Trump, who has previously expressed his strong support and admiration for Scaramucci, has yet to opine.

Scaramucci Singles Out Obama's "Political Holdovers" As White House Leakers

Having "terminated" his first White House leaker yesterday, President Trump"s newly-minted comms director has wasted no time in making many feel uncomfortable in the their roles (and rightly so).

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com

Speaking on Fox News, The Hill reports that Scaramucci said that "political holdovers" from the Obama White House "aren"t helping," and hinted that more staff changes could be on the way.

"Listen, we have to crack down on leaks on a number of different fronts," Scaramucci told "Fox and Friends."

"There seems to be some holdovers, political holdovers from the Obama administration that are not helping," he added.

"I certainly have the full responsibility in the comms shop, which I do believe will be corrected shortly."

Scaramucci cautioned viewers to remember that it"s impossible for him to reach a point of absolutely no leaks, but pledged to clean up the White House press office.

"People are suggesting I"m going to try to get the leaks down to zero, that is absolutely impossible in Washington, I"m learning a little about this town, but what I do want to have happen is people who report to me, if there are senior people in the administration trying to get them to leak information on each other, we"re getting that to stop right now."

Finally, Mooch The Merciless told Fox:

D.C. is the kind of town where people are "very nice to your face," but then stab you in the back.

"I"m more of a front-stabbing person," he said.

It appears that is just what The White House needs.