Former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci predicts Republican lawmakers will pressure President Trump to leave office by March 2020.
“When you talk to elected Republicans privately they can’t stand the president. They know the president is a lawless person and basically a criminal,” Scaramucci told Yahoo Finance’s On the Move.
The “Mooch” as he is called by friends, updated his earlier prediction that Republican leaders on Capitol Hill would ask the president to leave office by the end of the year. “Unfortunately I got that part of it wrong,” Scaramucci said. “I was counting on levels of valor and patriotism from my fellow Republicans and we didn’t get that yet.”
But Scaramucci, a political insider who was part of Trump’s finance committee in 2016 and joined the administration for a brief 11-day run as communications director in 2017, says the president’s approval rating keeps falling as the impeachment inquiry uncovers more scandals within the White House.
Scaramucci said Republicans can’t ignore the new polls from Fox News and NBC/Wall Street Journal which show a growing number of Americans, 49%, want Trump removed from office. “I predict that’s now going to have to go to 60 and when it’s 60, Republicans are going to have to cut and run.”
Launching a PAC to beat Trump
Scaramucci recently filed paperwork to create a political action committee (PAC) which will use its funds to defeat Trump if he fails to leave office before the 2020 presidential election.
“I am in the process of raising the assets and I will make an announcement in early January the number of assets we’ve raised and where we are going to target the thing,” he said.
Scaramucci’s PAC will focus on 11 swing states like Ohio, Michigan and Florida targeting suburban voters, “to explain what the president is doing actually to their children,” he said. “You can’t have somebody that is lawless at the top of the food chain, who is supposed to be the number one law enforcement official in the United States.”
Republican loyalty to Trump
Scaramucci suspects voters are turned off by the presidents “repetitive lying” and “bullying.” Among Republican voters, Trump’s approval rating has fallen eight points since September to 74%, according to a recent ABC News Washington Post poll. But 61% strongly approve of Trump’s performance as president which is essentially unchanged. It’s one reason Scaramucci says Republican leaders still defend Trump publicly but trash him privately.
“The president tries to shame people. He'll bully people,” said Scaramucci. “Remember, we have to be 100% loyal to him like he's David Koresh, or Jim Jones from the Jonestown Kool-Aid punch. If you're not 100% loyal to him he flips out.”
Scaramucci said Republicans should have acted sooner despite what he calls their fear to act.
“The stink of the president would have lasted a little while, but not that long. I mean, they're overestimating his power of intimidation,” he said. “And they're underestimating how good they could be post his departure.”
Adam Shapiro is co-anchor of Yahoo Finance On the Move.
Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance
Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, LinkedIn, YouTube, and reddit.