'I got to see the ugliest': Ex-Trump official refuses to grovel over his past criticisms
Former Trump White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci defied calls from CNBC's Joe Kernen on Friday to walk back his many harsh criticisms of the president-elect.
In an interview, Kernen told Scaramucci that he should be willing to "eat crow" after accusing Trump of being a racist and an authoritarian, among many other things.
Scaramucci, however, refused to bend.
"What would you like me to do?" Scaramucci demanded. "Would you like me to get on bended knee before you?... That's not what America is about. We have a violent disagreement about a lot of things related to Trump's personality. You like Trump. I was close to Trump, I got to see the ugliest of what he is. It's not just me -- there were 40 of us who worked for the president who were warning people."
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Kernen accused Scaramucci of turning against Trump for opportunistic reasons because it got him more appearances on CNN and MSNBC.
Scaramucci shot back and pointed specifically to Trump's musings about using the American military to go after Americans whom he described as "the enemy from within" as a particularly "un-American" statement he made during the campaign.
"Is that what he said?" asked Kernen.
"Of course he said it!" replied Scaramucci.
Scaramucci finally broke with Trump in 2019 when he told Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), and Ilhan Omar (D-MN) to "go back" to their home countries even though all of them are American citizens.