Anthony Scaramucci triggered a controversy late Wednesday when he appeared to suggest in a tweet that White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus was responsible for a leak about him.
“In light of the leak of my financial disclosure info which is a felony. I will be contacting @FBI and the @TheJusticeDept,” he wrote, notably tagging @Reince45 at the end.
In a CNN interview, the new White House communications director said the media was making “an assumption” about the tweet, which was later deleted, and that it was not a threat to Priebus.
His tweet came on the same day he vowed to aggressively pursue White House leakers.
On “Fox & Friends” this morning, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway was asked about the tweet and why Priebus’ name was included.
“Is Reince Priebus the big leaker or at least one of the big leakers? That’s what it looks like in the tweet,” Steve Doocy asked.
Conway would only say “leakers are easier to figure out than they may think,” and that the president is particularly concerned about leaks from the intelligence community.
She said she discussed the issue with Scaramucci and the president and that overall, they don’t want people in the White House who are trying to “curry favor” with the media.
“We just have to cut down on people thinking it’s cute and it makes them popular … to curry favor with folks who are more interested in covering the style and not the substance,” said Conway.
She said even though Scaramucci’s financial disclosure is a public document, he wanted to make the point that “somebody doesn’t want him here.”
