Trump: Chief of Staff John Kelly will be Leaving at End of Year.
SCIUTTO: The White House is facing a political storm now, tightening of the Russia investigation, a potentially hostile Democratic majority coming to Congress with veto - with subpoena power, rather. But President Trump's allies tell "The Washington Post" that instead of hiring lawyers and building a war room to respond, the White House is winging it. They're depending on President Trump's core supporters to believe what he tells them. Joining us now is former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci. Thanks very much for taking the time.</s>ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI, FORMER WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: So, I mean, just go back for one second, who is saying that? Like --</s>SCIUTTO: Listen, we had a lot of folks on the Hill. You hear from Republicans and Democrats. It's not just -- it's not made up.</s>SCARAMUCCI: Do you like New York better than Washington, Jim?</s>SCIUTTO: Me personally, I like them both. But I'll always be a New Yorker at heart. As a fellow New Yorker, you know that never leaves you.</s>SCARAMUCCI: Just curious.</s>SCIUTTO: Let's start if we can on the president's chief of staff position, because you just said another name take his -- another guy take his name out of the hat, that is Mark Meadows. You had Nick Ayers over the weekend who appeared to be the frontrunner. Does this indicate that folks don't want this job?</s>SCARAMUCCI: I don't think so. I think -- in Mark's case, look at what he's done with the Freedom Caucus and look at the role that he has in the Congress. And he's been unbelievably helpful to the president's agenda inside the Congress. And so, I think in Mark's situation, he's a total team player. He's trying to figure out what is the best utility for him, and he probably thinks it's to stay in Congress, which should make sense given you know how much power he's galvanized inside the House of Representatives.</s>SCIUTTO: But the point is you have a pattern, right? Because Nick Ayers, a young guy. You would think in the administration, a 36-year- old gets offered a job like that, he jumps at it. You got Mick Mulvaney saying he likes where he is. I mean you have to imagine that the legal questions, the president's style of management, are turning people off.</s>SCARAMUCCI: OK, so the legal stuff, in my opinion, I think you know the next chief of staff will probably have to convince the president to start ring fencing that. He's got very good legal counsel. They've got a pretty good idea where the facts are in the case, and I think they can protect the president. So I think that will dial back some of the president's tweets on that. As it relates to the other stuff, I don't think there's any shortage of people that would come and serve the country and work for the president. You know, and so for me, he'll probably -- you know, I don't know what happened with Nick Ayers. So I'm not sitting there at the table, but my guess is that the president was probably going to announce him or came close or thought about announcing him. Something happened. He withdrew. And so the president picked an exceptional cabinet. He's got very smart people around him. He'll probably deliberate about this for a week or two and come up with a great guy to be his chief. But here's the thing. I want the next chief of staff to be somebody who really likes the president. I mean it's enough of like, you know I'm serving the country.</s>SCIUTTO: Not the Kelly/Trump dynamic.</s>SCARAMUCCI: It's enough of I'm serving the country but I don't really like the president. Let's have somebody that really likes the president, recognizes that the president is the boss. Don't be a sycophant, you've got to talk to the president honestly, but recognize he's got the ball. You know you're just giving him some more offensive coordination and defensive coordination but he's the head coach and the quarterback.</s>SCIUTTO: Let me ask you about this because of course, you had the filings in the Cohen and the Manafort cases on Friday. The president, Rudy Giuliani, they dismissed both filings, but including the Cohen filing as being unrelated to this president, when in fact, Cohen is testifying that the president directed him to break campaign finance law. And as I always remind folks, you know the president will say it's a bunch of angry Democrats leading this, but the southern district of New York is run by a Trump appointee. How can the president and Giuliani say this is a totally unrelated to him when he's implicated?</s>SCARAMUCCI: Well, I -- they probably are saying it and they're probably saying it in that way. I'm not trying to be the translator here, but I think what they really mean is that whatever went on with Paul or in the case of Michael it's probably not going to be over the line of criminality as it relates to the president. I think that's the point that Rudy is making. And so I think that's the point that the president was making on Twitter. You know, having looked at the case, I do have a legal background. You know people obviously will disagree with me. Some of this is politically charged. Let's just look at the facts. The question will be does he have a John Edwards-like defense. Is it a campaign violation or was this something that he was doing in a normal course of his business and normal course of his process? And so to me, I think that's where they're coming out on, and I think that's why they're saying it's not illegal from the president's perspective.</s>SCIUTTO: I want to ask you this question, and you get asked this a lot. And I saw my colleague Chris Cuomo, he pressed you on this. The president not telling the truth on things in public. You used the expression, flowered up. Sometimes he embellishes. Sometimes he flowers things up.</s>SCARAMUCCI: -- things up. He flowers things up.</s>SCIUTTO: But sometimes, let's be fair --</s>SCARAMUCCI: I've also said to John Berman, the president has told lies. I'm not one of these sycophants where I'm going to sit out here and pretend that he hasn't said a few things that are not truthful, but let me just say this. You have to understand his operating style. You have to understand his presentation skills. The stuff that he's saying that isn't truthful, most people get the joke about it.</s>SCIUTTO: Is it a joke?</s>SCARAMUCCI: Other people say, well, intellectually how could you say that? You're justifying that he's not saying the truth. I'm not. I'm not justifying it. I'm just explaining based on my observation of the president's personality and someone that's worked with him, what he's doing and why he's doing it. And it's been generally effective for him, Jim, over the last 45 years.</s>SCIUTTO: But this gets to core issues here.</s>SCARAMUCCI: I'm not condoning it.</s>SCIUTTO: I know you're not condoning.</s>SCARAMUCCI: So, again, I'm really not condoning it. I'm just trying to explain it. The president, I think, controls the bully pulpit. He has a voice in the debate that I think is very powerful, and there's ways that he can sit down and strategize about how to use that voice going forward. But I think it would be more effective. I have said repeatedly that some of the war with the media, some of the issues and attention there is a 5 percent to 7 percent headwind in the president's face. He could have a much higher approval rating in my opinion if he dialed back some of that.</s>SCIUTTO: To your credit -</s>SCARAMUCCI: I've said that -</s>SCIUTTO: -- you have criticized this president for instance, for repeating the enemy, the people thing, which he repeated over the weekend.</s>SCARAMUCCI: I don't like it.</s>SCIUTTO: And we appreciate that.</s>SCARAMUCCI: I don't like it. And it's not -- I'm not saying that because you're in the media. I just don't like it. I understand the Constitution and the First Amendment. I understand the people in the media are there to hold people in power accountable. I mean, I didn't do that many things. I was in the White House, but I did turn the lights and cameras back on because I believe in the First Amendment, and I know the president believes in the First Amendment. By the way, the president had a great relationship with the media years ago. There's no reason why he can't have a better relationship with the media over the next two years than he did in the first two of his presidency.</s>SCIUTTO: Appreciated. Final question, if I can. This struck us because you were speaking at a conference this weekend, and you talk because this gets to the truth issue. You talked about this QAnon, which is the source of many of the worst you know conspiracy theories going back to Pizza Gate and a whole host of others, but you said that they're accurate about so many things.</s>SCARAMUCCI: OK, this is what I love about the media. This is sort of what happened to me with CNN, right, where I said these guys, OK, you're being dishonest. If you're going to report that, I'm going to have to come after you. Of course, the three CNN people got fired. I don't even remember this reporter's name. And so I'm not even going to bring the guy's name up and give them --</s>SCIUTTO: But on this issue.</s>SCARAMUCCI: Let me say what I said. I said there was a woman there. She had a T-shirt on that had Q on it. I laughed. I said what is this whole Q thing? She started listing things for me. The reporter didn't hear the whole thing of what this guy has apparently predicted. I said wow, I didn't realize he had gotten so many things right. I'm not focused on</s>Q. SCIUTTO: You're not endorsing them.</s>SCARAMUCCI: I'm not endorsing Q. I don't know anything about QAnon. The reporter thought he had me in a got you moment because that's what reporters do. He didn't declare himself as a reporter. He didn't say he was interviewing anybody. I was teasing the woman when I said wait until you find out who the guy is. I have no idea who the guy is. I'm not a quote, unquote. She went on truther. I could care less about QAnon. But that's what I don't like about the media, OK? They set me up - let me finish.</s>SCIUTTO: I asked you the question. I'm accepting your answer.</s>SCARAMUCCI: I appreciate you bringing it up so that I can clear it up. I'm not going to respond to this joker on Twitter or these other jokers that hang out with the guy, but this is why the American people strongly dislike elements of the media that they think are being unfair. You're a very fair guy, and I appreciate you bringing it up, but I just want to state for the record, I'm not a QAnon truther. I don't know anything about QAnon and -- but according to what the woman said, if it's true, some of the things that the guy put out there turned out to be true. Maybe there are 95 percent of things that turn out to be false. I have no idea. I don't even look at the stuff.</s>SCIUTTO: Question asked and answered. I appreciate you --</s>SCARAMUCCI: Could you understand why that would be something that would upset me?</s>SCIUTTO: I get it. I get it. I do.</s>SCARAMUCCI: Ridiculous stuff that goes on.</s>SCIUTTO: But you also answered the question. And we're you know -- because I'm hearing your answer, I'm taking your answer at face value.</s>SCARAMUCCI: This is ridiculous, Jim.</s>SCIUTTO: I appreciate you taking the hard questions on this and other topics, looks forward to having you back.</s>SCARAMUCCI: Any time. Thanks for having me.</s>SCIUTTO: Anthony Scaramucci thanks very much. And we'll be right back after this break.