7/28/2017 Trump's healthcare battle reminds Scaramucci of Lincoln fighting slavery | US news | The Guardian

Scaramucci likens Trumps healthcare ght to Lincolns slavery battle

Trump's healthcare battle reminds Scaramucci

of Lincoln ghting slavery
White Houses new communications chief said it took repeated attempts for Lincoln to get what he wanted
and adds he is certain of a US-UK trade deal

Julia Gregory, Amanda Holpuch and agencies

Thursday 27 July 2017 02.24BST

The new head of communications at the White House brought up Abraham Lincolns struggle to
end slavery when asked about the diculty Donald Trump has faced in trying to repeal Barack
Obamas healthcare legislation.

In his rst UK television interview, Anthony Scaramucci said Trump would push through the
abolition of the healthcare plan, despite opposition in Congress.

He told BBC Newsnights Emily Maitlis: If youve read Team of Rivals, it took Lincoln three or
four times to get what he wanted from the Senate and the House of Representatives, which was
the full abolition of slavery that was a much tougher thing to get done than what were working
on right now.

When Maitlis addressed the diculty Trump was facing from his own party, Scaramucci added:
It took 22 months for President Obama to get what he wanted from the legislature. Were in the
six months of the presidents presidency. So think about the things we are trying to accomplish
inside of one year ... If we get Obamacare repealed and replaced, which I predict will still happen,
and we get a level of tax reform that we havent seen since 1986 and we do that inside of a 12-
month period of the presidency, I think that will be remarkable.

When asked to set a date for these accomplishments, he replied: Do you live here in Washington?
... People say one thing to your face but they dont really mean it, and they something else behind
your back. What I like about the president, its actually good leadership to say the things to
peoples faces.

The communications director also claimed that Donald Trump Jr, who met with a Kremlin-
backed lawyer to gain information to damage Hillary Clintons election campaign, was simply
inexperienced, adding that Trump Jr would be completely exonerated.

Sacaramucci also said he was 100% certain that there would be a US-UK trade deal after Brexit.
The UKs international trade secretary, Liam Fox, has been in Washington for talks about a
potential trade agreement and Donald Trump talked up the prospects of a very big and exciting
deal with Britain.
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7/28/2017 Trump's healthcare battle reminds Scaramucci of Lincoln fighting slavery | US news | The Guardian

Asked whether a deal was on the cards, Scaramucci said: 100%. [Trump] loves the United
Kingdom ... Think about the special relationship weve had since the inception of this great
nation. You know what this nation is? Its a disruptive startup. It was a group of rich guys who got
together and said, You know what, we are going to break away from the other countries and start
our own country.

This is a disruptive startup. You know what the president is doing? He is bringing it back to its
roots of disruption. He admitted he had no idea about whether a deal would involve chlorine-
washed chicken, but he said Trump was about reciprocity, he is about fair and equal trade.

The White House spokesman was also challenged about Trumps series of public attacks on the
US attorney general, Je Sessions. He said the president was a very straight shooter, he likes to
express himself, he likes to let people know how he feels.

He added: Part of his nature is that he is a very tough person. By tough, I mean it in a good way
he is really trying to use the bully pulpit and the Oval Oce and his presidency to execute an
agenda on behalf of the American people, and this is a very tough town. Scaramucci said people
dealing with Trump had to have a tough exoskeleton, be a strong person with a strong
backbone.

Of Washingtons political culture, he said: One of the things I cannot stand about this town is the
backstabbing that goes on here. Where I grew up, in the neighborhood Im from, were front-
stabbers. We like to tell you exactly where were from and what were doing.

To me, if you can handle the presidents personality, if you can handle his temperament which
I happen to love then you are going to do great with the president.

On Monday morning, Scaramucci continued to criticize the culture of Washington DC, telling
CNNs New Day that people in the administration who leaked information would have been
hung 150 years ago.

He has previously threatened to dismiss the entire White House press oce, primarily because of
leaks to reporters.

In a tweet he published, then deleted, on Wednesday, Scaramucci implied Trumps chief of sta,
Reince Priebus, could be responsible for at least some of the leaks.

When a journalist tweeted: Scaramucci wants the FBI to investigate Reince for leaking, the
press chief replied: Wrong! Tweet was public notice to leakers that all Sr Adm ocials are
helping to end illegal leaks. @Reince45.

But asked about this on Thursday morning, Scaramucci appeared to return to that suggestion: If
Reince wants to explain that hes not a leaker, let him do that.

Asked about the tweet mentioning Priebus, the White House aide Kellyanne Conway later told
Fox News: The fact is we just have to cut down on people thinking its cute [to leak] and it makes
them popular, that [it] somehow enhances their rsum and their portfolio for later on to curry
favor with folks who are more interested in covering the style and not the substance here.

Since youre here

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7/28/2017 Trump's healthcare battle reminds Scaramucci of Lincoln fighting slavery | US news | The Guardian

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Topics
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Anthony Scaramucci
Trump administration
Donald Trump
Trade policy
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