When you want to cause a political scandal on Twitter but you play yourself
Former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus is out of a job as of Friday, but his feud with new White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci still found a way to bubble up on Sunday.
Arthur Schwartz, a man who's been quoted as a "GOP operative" and "a spokesman for Scaramucci," threatened to leak opposition research on Priebus with a few tweets.
The apparent Scaramucci associate seems to have wanted his followers to believe Priebus hasn't been faithful to his wife, though he provided no information to back up the assertion, which is a dirty allegation to begin with.
A bunch of folks took notice, including CNN's Jake Tapper. Soon, Schwartz tweeted that Scaramucci called him and told him to shut up, after which Schwartz deleted his anti-Priebus tirade and went on a brief apology tour.
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Whether Priebus actually heard from Schwartz and accepted an apology is unclear. Tapper tweeted that no such apology happened.
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But Schwartz -- after initially threatening to sue Tapper because I guess he was unhappy being called Scaramucci's publicist -- doesn't appear to want to tangle with the CNN anchor any more than he already has.
Schwartz tweeted that he apologized to Tapper...
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...and then retweeted this:
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The man also changed his Twitter bio to "Not Scaramucci's Publicist."
Priebus tried to stop Scaramucci's appointment to a position at the White House for months, but didn't survive long once he finally lost that battle. Just before Priebus got the boot, Scaramucci gave a truly god damn wild interview to The New Yorker's Ryan Lizza, in which he called Priebus "a fucking paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac."
Priebus was gone the day after that interview published.
Topics Donald Trump Politics
Colin is Mashable's US & World Reporter. He previously interned at Foreign Policy magazine and The American Prospect. Colin is a graduate from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. When he's not at Mashable, you can most likely find him eating or playing some kind of sport.
