OPINION:
Anthony Scaramucci, new White House communications director, apparently ain’t playing.
When asked by CBS “Face the Nation” host John Dickerson what would happen to leakers and whistleblowers under Scaramucci’s watch, the newbie fired off this reply: “They’re going to get fired.”
Good. This is kind of the shot heard ’round the White House. Let the firings begin.
Leaks have been plaguing President Donald Trump since he’s taken over, giving the press quite the field day in covering him from the most critical of angles. Trump was just “outed,” so to speak, by a leaker who told the media he actually asked advisers during a private meeting about his legal ability to pardon himself — a question that hands his opposition the chance to smear his forehead with a “Guilty” stamp. After all, the conjecture goes, why would he be asking about his ability to pardon himself if he wasn’t guilty of some sin in the first place?
Trump tweeted about the leak: “While all agree the U.S. President has the complete power to pardon, why think of that when only crime so far is LEAKS against us. FAKE NEWS.”
Scaramucci picked up the thread and defended Trump on Sunday, as the Washington Free Beacon noted.
“He’s done absolutely nothing wrong,” Scaramucci said, calling such leaks “unprofessional,” “injurious” and perhaps “felonious.”
He went on: “There’s no need for him to pardon anybody. But he just doesn’t like the fact that he has a two-minute conversation in the Oval Office or in his study, and then people are running out and leaking that.”
Exactly. Working for the White House is a privilege of the highest honor. Serving the president should not be self-serving — it should not be occasion to brag about inside scoops, or boast about knowledge of presidential remarks, or worse, use insider knowledge to undercut the executive. Leakers should be fired. They’re not just tactless and disloyal.
They’re an enemy to the office they serve and that makes them dangerous to the country.
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