Anthony Scaramucci has reportedly been blocked from entering the White House, and is blaming the President’s chief of staff, John Kelly.
A White House official confirmed on Friday that Scaramucci is among fired officials excluded from the grounds, after the financier showed official correspondence denying him an appointment, Bloomberg News reported.
The official, who was not named, said that Scaramucci was on an ‘administrative exclusion list’ along with other former staffers who left the White House ‘under adverse circumstances’.
Scaramucci was fired as White House communications director in July, ten days into the job, after giving an expletive-filled interview trashing other top officials.
Anthony Scaramucci has reportedly been blocked from entering the White House. He is pictured during his tumultuous 10-day tenure as White House communications director in July
Scaramucci blames White House Chief of Staff John Kelly (center) for his ban, but the White House says any staffer who has been fired is on an ‘administrative exclusion list’
He has kept up the habit, blaming Kelly for blocking him from seeing President Donald Trump and predicting the chief of staff’s style would spur more departures.
‘Does the president want to lose everyone because of General Jackass?’ Scaramucci told Bloomberg on Thursday.
‘There will be a further evacuation of talent…The guy is a bad dude,’ Scaramucci said of Kelly. ‘Fear and intimidation doesn’t work in a civilian organization. If he had any honor he’d resign.’
Following the interview, Scarmucci provided email correspondence to Bloomberg backing up his claim that his old rival Kelly was keeping him out of the White House.
The emails indicated that only Kelly or Deputy Chief of Staff Joe Hagin could override Scaramucci’s exclusion from the grounds.
Scaramucci claims his old rival Kelly’s style will spur other White House departures
The official insisted that Scaramucci hadn’t been singled out though, saying that anyone who failed a background check, was fired, or was asked to resign faces the same restrictions, and a similar ‘administrative exclusion list’ existed in previous administrations.
Scaramucci’s call for Kelly’s ouster comes as the chief of staff has weathered storms over how he handled the firing of accused wife-beating aide Rob Porter.
Trump has insisted that Kelly’s job is secure, but Kelly himself has sounded wistful at times in recent days.
‘The last thing I wanted to do was walk away from one of the great honors of my life, being the secretary of Homeland Security,’ he said Thursday at an event marking the agency’s 15th anniversary.
‘But I did something wrong and God punished me, I guess.’