„The moral is at an all-time low and it’s trending lower.“
Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci said Thursday that if President Donald Trump doesn’t fix a severe “morale” problem in his administration that there will be “a lot more departures” following Hope Hicks‘ exit this week.
Speaking to CNN, Scaramucci blamed the dip in spirit at the White House on chief of staff John Kelly, who fired the former communications director after just over 10 days in office. “This is a cultural thing,” Scaramucci said. “The morale inside the White House… the morale is terrible.”
“The reason the morale is terrible is that the rule by fear and intimidation does not work in a civilian environment,” referring to Kelly, a former U. S. Marine Corps general.
According to Scaramucci, “it will be up to the president to figure out if he wants to fix it or not,” however he predicts there will be “more departures.”
“If the current situation and the current culture inside the administration stays exactly the way it is and there’s literally no change, there will be a lot more departures. The morale is at an all-time low and it’s trending lower,” he added.
The short-lived communications director also ripped into Kelly over his handling of the controversy surrounding Rob Porter, a former White House staff secretary who resigned amid mounting domestic abuse allegations.
“He had the information, he tried to cover up the information,” Scaramucci said, alleging that Kelly tried to suppress the domestic violence information on Porter. “He tried to get other people inside the White House to cover up the information for him.”
When pressed by CNN’s Chris Cuomo on if he believes Kelly “covered up the information” on Poter, Scaramucci said: “I do.”
“The White House says as soon as he found out, he acted on it,” Cuomo said.