Wolf Blitzer pressed Reince Priebus, now the former chief of staff for President Trump, on the accusation lobbed his direction from the new White House communications director, Anthony Scaramucci. The interaction occurred Friday on CNN during Priebus' first interview since his resignation was announced.
"He made some bitter accusations against you," Blitzer said to Priebus, referring to Scaramucci, "specifically the leaking."
"Are you the leaker in the White House?" he asked directly.
"That's ridiculous, Wolf. Come on," Priebus responded. "Gimme a break, I'm not gonna get into his accusations..."
"Why not? Why not respond to him?" Blitzer challenged.
"Because I'm not going to because I'm going to honor the president," Priebus replied. "I'm gonna honor the president every day, and I'm gonna honor his agenda. And I'm gonna honor our country, and I'm not gonna get into all of this personal stuff, so..."
"Is there a leaking problem in the White House based on what you've seen?" Blitzer asked.
"Yeah, I think that General Kelly should see if he should get to the bottom of it and figure it out," Priebus said.
Reince Priebus on Scaramucci’s claim that he’s the White House leaker: “That’s ridiculous” https://t.co/nZZpgDKnsi https://t.co/kmPW88NTsz
— The Situation Room (@CNNSitRoom) July 28, 2017
"But obviously unnamed sources are something that's been problematic and I wish him well," he added, "and I'm gonna try to help him, but obviously that's gonna be on his plate, and I hope he can get to the bottom of it."
Scaramucci made the bizarre accusation Wednesday evening against Priebus and included it in a tweet that he later deleted. It turned out that the information he was accusing Priebus of "leaking" was publicly available. He also described Priebus as a "f*cking paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac,” to a reporter over the incident.
Scaramucci later made the accusation openly on CNN's New Day. "If Reince wants to explain that he's not a leaker, let him do that," he said. "I'm a straight shooter and I'll go right to the heart of the matter."