Anthony Scaramucci was dropped Thursday from a Republican party fundraiser after the former White House communications director said that President Trump is “turning into” a racist.
The head of the Palm Beach County Republican Party said that Mr. Scaramucci, a financier who briefly served in Mr. Trump’s administration in 2017, has been disinvited from the annual “Lobsterfest” fundraiser Saturday where he had been scheduled to speak.
Michael A. Barnett, the party’s chairman, said that Mr. Scaramucci was dropped from the event as a direct result of recently speaking out against the president’s recent criticism of four progressive Democratic congresswomen of color.
Mr. Trump suggested over the weekend that the lawmakers, dubbed “The Squad,” should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,” igniting a firestorm of criticism in the days since by Democrats decrying the president’s remark as racist.
“I don’t think the president is a racist,” Mr. Scaramucci told the BBC on Tuesday. “But here’s the thing, if you continue to say and act in that manner, then we all have to look at him and say, ’OK, well, maybe you weren’t a racist, but now you’re turning into one.’”
Mr. Barnett accordingly emailed Mr. Scaramucci early Thursday and told him not to come to Lobsterfest, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.
“It kind of infuriated the board when it learned what he said about the president. None of us believe what the president said in his tweet is racist or that he is a racist,” Mr. Barnett told the newspaper. “I don’t believe for a second that he’s a racist.”
“Mike Barnett must like and condone racist comments,” reacted Mr. Scaramucci Politico first reported. “Someone with more courage and less political expediency would call it for what it is and ask it to stop.”
Mr. Scaramucci, 55, served as the White House communications director for six days during the summer of 2017. He was fired by John F. Kelly, Mr. Trump’s chief of staff at the time, within hours of Mr. Kelly taking office.
Lobsterfest announced in May that Mr. Scaramucci and Roger Stone, Mr. Trump’s longtime confidant and former campaign adviser, would speak at Saturday’s annual fundraiser. Rep. Matt Gaetz, Florida Republican, was added to the lineup earlier this month.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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