NEW YORK (AP) - Anthony Scaramucci says his profanity-laced phone call that preceded his ouster as White House communications director was recorded without his permission.
But a representative for The New Yorker on Thursday notes that reporter Ryan Lizza wasn’t required by law to get Scaramucci’s consent to record the conversation.
Federal law permits taping telephone conversations if one party consents to the taping - in this case, Lizza. Some places require consent of both parties, but not Washington, D.C., where Lizza took the call.
Scaramucci called Lizza last month and insulted White House aides using vulgar language during the phone interview. The former Wall Street financier was fired July 31 after only 11 days on the job.
Scaramucci used #lowlife to describe Lizza on Twitter on Wednesday.
But even in his absence the Mooch was in the sights of the wags at “Saturday Night Live” Thursday night as NBC aired its first summer edition of “Weekend Update” fake news.
A Scaramucci impersonator - comedian Bill Hader - FaceTimed anchor Michael Che in the midst of the newscast to boast of how the media was missing him.
“I’m like human cocaine,” he gloated. “You got a little bump of me, I made you feel excited. But I was out of your system too quick. And now that I’m gone, you’re trying to figure out how to score some more Scara-mooch!”
“I gotta admit,” Che said, “we DID hope that you’d stay around a little longer.”
“Me too,” Scaramucci-Hader replied. “But the Mooch has no regrets, baby. All I did was sell my company, miss the birth of my child and ruin my entire reputation, all to be king of Idiot Mountain for 11 days. But now the Mooch is loose!
“Hey,” he asked then - “you guys hiring over there?”
The real Scaramucci begins his real-life media tour Sunday with an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week.” He’ll follow that up with an appearance Monday on Stephen Colbert’s “The Late Show.”
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