Anthony Scaramucci is advising Steve Bannon to seek psychiatric help after Mr. Bannon’s scathing criticisms of the first family were published in a new book.
Mr. Scaramucci, the former White House communications director, took particular issue with Mr. Bannon’s alleged characterization of Donald Trump Jr. as “treasonous” and “unpatriotic.”
“Donald J. Trump Jr. is a very honest person, he’s an American patriot, and to call him treasonous, you got something wrong with you, pal,” Mr. Scaramucci said Thursday on CNN’s “New Day.” “You gotta get back to your therapist, OK? And get back on the air, and take it back.”
Mr. Bannon’s “treasonous” remark was in reference to the younger Mr. Trump’s decision to meet with a Russian official who said she had damaging information on Hillary Clinton during the presidential race, according to “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” Michael Wolff’s behind-the-scenes look at the first year of the Trump presidency.
The Breitbart News chairman has not commented on the veracity of the remark.
The book also quotes Mr. Bannon, the president’s former counselor, calling Ivanka Trump “dumb as a brick.”
SEE ALSO: Anthony Scaramucci on Steve Bannon: ‘He’s for Steve. We’re for the president’
Responding to the comments on Wednesday, Mr. Trump said Mr. Bannon exaggerated his influence in the White House and had “very little to do with our historic victory” in the presidential race.
“Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my Presidency,” Mr. Trump said in a written statement. “When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind.”
Mr. Scaramucci, the short-lived White House communications director, was fired after 11 days for, among other things, making crude remarks about Mr. Bannon in an interview with the New Yorker.
He said the president’s remarks prove that he was right about Mr. Bannon all along.
“You’d have to say what the president said and what I said over the summer: Steve’s out for Steve,” Mr. Scaramucci said. “And so what I would say to Steve [is] let’s put the party back together, cut your nonsense, OK? We’ve got to play on one team, and we’re playing for the country, we’re playing for middle-class families and the forgotten people of the country.”
Mr. Scaramucci described Mr. Trump as “frustrated” but not angry with Mr. Bannon. He attributed their feud to disagreements on issues ranging from the Alabama Senate race to the troop surge in Afghanistan.
“I wouldn’t describe him as angry as much as I would describe him as frustrated, because when he let Bannon go, he sent out a nice tweet about him, and he wanted to have some level of cordiality, and he wanted to bring the party together, OK?” Mr. Scaramucci said. “He also didn’t want to go with Judge Roy Moore. He wanted to go with Big Luther, as we both know. And so there were a lot of breaks that Bannon made from the president.”
• Bradford Richardson can be reached at brichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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