White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles points as she exits US Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso's (R-WY) office on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., US, September 28, 2026. REUTERS/Kylie Cooper
Former white House communications director Anthony Scaramucci spoke with investigative journalist Tara Palmeri, who has been a critical part of the public push to recognize survivors of trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
While Scaramucci cracked a joke about short-lived press secretary Katie Zacharia beating his well-earned record of being fired quickly by the White House, he also said that it was part of the same machine that got rid of him, too.
"I was only there for 11 days. The fight started early and the shots were coming from inside the house," the man who has become known as "the Mooch" told the reporter. "They were trying to kill me from day one. You were there. You saw what Reince [Priebus] was trying to do to me and what Steve Bannon was trying to do to me."
When Palmeri asked to explain what that meant, Scaramucci said that the knives came out for Zacharia, who was, in a way, stuck between an inside feud between Wiles and Trump.
"I guess Trump is mad at Susie Wiles. He's upset about what's going on in Eastern Europe with her daughter and different things that Susie's doing," Scaraucci said. "And so he jumped her [Wiles] by putting Katie in the position and then you know they isolated her and they figured out a way to dislodge her."
Wiles' daughter, Katie Wiles, is a partner at Continental Strategy, a lobbying firm. She's reportedly paid $35,000 a month to represent Republika Srpska, the pro-Russian, Serbian-run entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina. Katie visited the region for an energy-related business project and was photographed holding a rifle beside its interior minister. The issue is that the White House chief of staff's daughter has business ties to a foreign government aligned with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Both have denied any wrongdoing.
"You know, the rat-effing in Washington," Scaramucci said.
Palmeri said she thought that Zacharia simply wasn't prepared. They hired her on a Friday and she briefed on a Tuesday.
"Well, yeah, but she also wasn't wanted by the chief of staff. She wasn't wanted by Susie Wiles," Scaramucci said. "So, you know that's where the ships start coming out because, you know, that's what this group of people does to each other."
Scaramucci also addressed what he thinks is the forthcoming impeachment of Secretary Pete Hegseth. After Republicans lose the House in the midterms, he thinks they will have the votes to support an investigation into Hegseth.
They went on to talk about the parasitic nature of corruption in Washington, and he alleged that Trump has turned what he once referred to as "the swamp" into a gold-plated hot tub. While those in the Trump administration see the president profiting, they too have sought to make their own money from the government. It infuriates Trump, but Scaramucci said it's the perfect example of the parasite eating the host.
