Spicer Resigns; Will Scaramucci Be Better?

It makes sense, in some ways, that President Donald Trump has hired Anthony Scaramucci to be his new communications director.

Scaramucci seems to have been a former supporter of Hillary Clinton, so in hiring Scaramucci, he now has someone on his side that could be useful in swaying Democrats to Trump's way of thinking. According to Scaramucci's old tweets, he seems to have deleted any mention of wanting Clinton to run for office, and all prior criticisms of Donald Trump or his campaign have been erased. All of this makes sense, and it makes it seem as though the new communications director is fully on board with what Trump wants.

Granted, it could be that Trump had Scaramucci delete all these tweets in order to ensure the appearance of propriety, but on the other hand, in a world where prospective employers can check your social media accounts and base their decision to hire on what they see, Trump could have made the hire conditional until Scaramucci deleted the prior tweets.

For his part, Scaramucci appeared to want to put any rumors of past Democrat - or at least Clinton - support to rest.

“Past views evolved & shouldn’t be a distraction," he noted, via Twitter. "I serve @POTUS agenda & that’s all that matters.”

Among the deleted tweets is one dated 16 April 2012 that expressed hope that Hillary Clinton would consider a second run for the highest political position in the United States because "she is incredibly competent," according to Scaramucci.

In 2015, Scaramucci spoke of then-potential candidate Trump in less than glowing terms. He said in a Fox Business Network interview that Trump was "a hack politician. … I'll tell you who he's going to be president of — you can tell Donald I said this — the Queens County bullies association."

Now, however, he has said several times that he loves the Donald and explained that he said what he did as a result of "political inexperience."

“Mr. President, if you’re listening, I personally apologize for the 50th time for saying that,” he said while noting that Trump brings up Scaramucci's comments "every 15 minutes."

Trump appeared unfazed and said that Scaramucci had actually wanted to endorse him first but did not seem to think that Trump was actually running. In the 2016 Republican primaries, Scaramucci endorsed Wisconsin governor Scott Walker and Florida governor Jeb Bush over Trump.

It was the hiring of Scaramucci that appears to have been one of the final nails in former press secretary Sean Spicer's coffin; the embattled Spicer has been regularly skewered by the media on all fronts and has been widely lampooned by comedian Melissa McCarthy on Saturday Night Live. It was this that appeared to draw the most ire from Trump, and not because Spicer became such a target - but because he had been portrayed by a woman during these sketches.

When Trump appeared to have deliberately left the highly visible Spicer off his list of those individuals in his inner circle to meet with the Pope last month, many sympathized with Spicer. A devout Catholic, one of the biggest wishes that Spicer had was to have met with Pope Francis.

“For something like this to happen to Sean Spicer I think really is an indictment against Donald Trump and again in his lack of loyalty," Mark Preston, a senior political analyst for CNN who attends the same parish as Spicer, told CNN reporter Erin Burnett.

Spicer also objected to Scaramucci's hiring as communications director and reportedly refused to stay on as press secretary. Spicer's reasoning was that he believed that Scaramucci's appointment would add to the confusion that has engulfed the White House since Trump took office January 20.

In a statement read by new press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump expressed his thanks for Spicer's service.

"I'm grateful for Sean's work on behalf of my administration and the American people," he said. "I wish him continued success as he moves on to pursue new opportunities. Just look at his great television ratings."

According to CNBC, top Trump advisor Steve Bannon told Scaramucci that he would get the communications director position "over [his] dead body." Both Bannon and Reince Priebus, Trump's chief of staff, had been kept out of the loop when it came to Scaramucci's hiring.

There are also some reports that state Scaramucci has referred to Spicer as Melissa McCarthy. Business Insidercites a Wall Street Journal report that states Scaramucci would often invoke the McCarthy sketches when referring to Spicer with his new colleagues and apparently would even refer to the beleaguered press secretary by the actress' name.

If the claims are true, it would appear that Scaramucci might be intent on maintaining Trump's trend of bullying those who would not align with his beliefs.