Former White House staffer discusses Republican Party
The Jesse Unruh Institute for Politics, in partnership with ProCon.org and Italian American Lawyers Association, hosted a discussion on the future of the Republican Party under the Trump administration.
The panel featured Anthony Scaramucci, former Trump White House director of communications, and Mike Murphy, Center for the Political Future co-director and GOP consultant. Former Democratic California Assemblyman Mike Gatto moderated the event.
Scaramucci talked about his book “Trump, The Blue-Collar President,” the title of which refers to President Donald Trump securing the support of America’s working class during the 2016 election and into his presidency. Scaramucci clarified that though the president was far from a blue-collar person in his upbringing and status, Trump has great influence over this demographic.
“He hijacked the Republican Party from the party’s establishment,” Scaramucci said. “He took it from party leaders that don’t like him … He reached into the blue-collar workers and stole a good part of their base.”
Scaramucci also spoke about his brief time working in the White House in July.
“I didn’t realize the dynamics in politics are so drastically different from business,” Scaramucci said. “I thought people that were on the same team with me we were going to work together. It turns out you shoot each other, you shoot to kill in politics.”
Scaramucci also offered advice to young people, reflecting on the expletive-ladened interview with The New Yorker that cost him his job after 11 days.
“If you’re making a mistake, own the mistake,” he said. “Be accountable for the mistake. Don’t pass it on … Forgive yourself.”
Murphy said the Republican Party needs to appeal to a more diverse range of voters in order to get more support in the 2020 election.
“We’re up against demography,” Murphy said. “That is a lousy fight to be in … we’re the party of old people … that’s what we have to fix.”
Scaramucci said Republican voters don’t respond well when Trump makes negative remarks about other prominent figures and politicians. He said Trump will need to take a more moderate approach if he wants to garner support for reelection.
“He’s got great communication skills, but he goes into areas stylistically that I think really really hurt him with people,“ Scaramucci said. “If he dialed back levels of his personality or softened his image like he did at the State of the Union address … his poll numbers [would] go up.”
Will Borie, a sophomore majoring in computer science, attended the event to hear Scaramucci speak about his role in the White House.
“I thought it was really fun to see him disagree a lot with Mike Murphy,” Borie said. “It’s clear they’re in different camps in the Republican Party … It’s good to see there’s good debate going on within the party.”