I've read the transcript and listened to the audio, and I don't think it was a hit piece aimed at Trump; if anything, it was aimed at Scaramucci. I disagree that the context is missing - Scaramucci called Lizza to try to find out who told him about a dinner he had with Trump that night, and the conversation just devolved from there.
Knowing the conversation was on the record, Lizza just let him talk. Did he laugh at some of the comments? Yes, but that just encouraged Scaramucci to keep going. It doesn't mean Lizza was in on it. Scaramucci had no one other than himself to blame; he was the new Comms Director, he should have known better than to speak like that to a reporter on the record. Lizza was just doing his job, which is to report what happened. Could he have cleaned it up? Yes, but then you miss the full impact of what Scaramucci was saying. He was trashing Bannon and Priebus and using colorful language to do so - was Lizza supposed to pretend it didn't happen?
I think Scaramucci got canned not necessarily for what he said but for how he said it. Trump supposedly liked what he did, but others in his inner circle (such as his wife and daughter) were appalled. |
