As White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci squares off against chief of staff Reince Priebus, Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., is making clear that he’s firmly on Team Wisconsin.
“I’m with Reince,” Duffy says, cutting to the chase during a Thursday visit to the Washington Examiner newsroom. “I’m with Wisconsin, brother.”
That’s a significant vote of confidence coming from Duffy, who has close ties with both President Trump as an early endorser and with Priebus as a fellow Wisconsin Republican. Should push come to shove then, Priebus will be glad Duffy is in his corner.
Since coming to Washington last week, Scaramucci has been more Oval Office brawler than traditional White House communications director. On Twitter Wednesday night and CNN Thursday morning, he stopped just short of accusing Priebus of undermining the president.
“When I put out a tweet and I put Reince’s name in a tweet, they’re all making the assumption that it’s him because journalists know who the leakers are,” Scaramucci told CNN’s Chris Cuomo. “So if Reince wants to explain he’s not a leaker, let him do that.”
Duffy doesn’t make much of that charge. “There’s no evidence of Reince leaking anything” he says, adding though that he has “zero tolerance” for the practice and “if Reince was leaking that’s a problem for him.”
Frustrations have been boiling in the White House for months as leaks have turned into daily deluges of front page stories. Trump has become so frustrated that additional staff purges and shakeups are regularly rumored. On the job for a week, Scaramucci had made plugging the holes a top priority, even threatening to “fire everybody” if necessary.
But Duffy doesn’t think a personnel change is in order at the chief of staff slot. “Who would do a better job than Reince right now?” he asks.
Philip Wegmann is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
