On Colbert, Scaramucci says he'd fire Bannon

The shortest serving White House communications director in U.S. history, Anthony Scaramucci, gave his raw opinion about a quarrelsome White House when he appeared on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" Monday night.

"It's a tough place," he admitted to Colbert. "There was a lot of infighting ... front stabbing."

Scaramucci, nicknamed "The Mooch," said chief strategist Stephen Bannon isn't a white supremacist. Scaramucci said he noticed that Bannon did have the tendency to tolerate white supremacist ideology and that, Scaramaucci admitted, is "disgusting" and "reprehensible."

As for Bannon's future in the White House, which CBS News chief White house correspondent Major Garrett reports may be in jeopardy, Scaramucci said if he had hiring-and-firing authority, he'd want to see Bannon gone for good.

"That's up to the president," Scaramucci said. "If it were up to me, he would be gone, but it's not up to me."

When questioned by Colbert on whether he "felt burned" by the White House for getting fired not long after his profanity-laced New Yorker interview was published, Scaramucci remained calm, and answered no.

"Not at all. When you take a job like that, you know your expiration date is coming," he said. "You take that job recognizing that you're serving at the behest of the president, and if he doesn't want you there anymore … you leave with respect."

Asked if he would do anything differently given the chance to be communications director again, Scaramucci said "absolutely nothing." He noted that if he'd acted any differently from his true self, the process wouldn't have been right.

During the interview, Scaramucci also critiqued Mr. Trump's reaction to the deadly Charlottesville, Virginia, protests over the weekend. He said it was right for the president to openly condemn racist groups like the KKK and neo-Nazis today, but he should have been more specific on the day the events were unfolding.

"It was late. But he did go today and make a statement that was very declarative against it," Scaramucci said. "He is a compassionate person. I know him as a compassionate person."

At the end of the interview, Scaramucci presented Colbert a knife with his name engraved on it as a parting gift, referencing Colbert's relentless three weeks teasing him about "front-stabbing" and "back-stabbing."

Scaramucci signed off the show recommending that Mr. Trump make an appearance himself sometime in the future.

In:
• Steve Bannon
• Stephen Colbert
• Ku Klux Klan
• Anthony Scaramucci