Sponsored message
Logged in as
Audience-funded nonprofit news
radio tower icon laist logo
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Subscribe
  • Listen Now Playing Listen
  • Listen Now Playing Listen

This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.

This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.

News

Anthony Scaramucci Nixes Appearance At Politicon

GettyImages-822303588.jpg
(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.

Anthony "The Mooch" Scaramucci has hit the ground running. It's hardly his first week as the White House's communications director, and he's already chewed out Reince Priebus as "a paranoiac" to The New Yorker, said in the same conversation that Steve Bannon was performing figurative autofellatio, claimed that he was being "transparent" by admitting he was deleting his tweets, told Politico he was firing assistant press secretary Michael Short (before informing Short), and claimed that an unnamed source told him that Russian hackers were too sly to be caught...only to confirm a moment later that the source was President Trump.

If his job is to be as loud and inexplicable as possible (not unthinkable, by the way), then he's passing with flying colors.

One thing Scaramucci that won't be doing? Attending this weekend's Politicon in Pasadena. According to Variety, event organizers said Scaramucci bailed on the event, on the night that The New Yorker published the comms director's expletive-filled conversation. Variety muses that the move may be an attempt to lay low after the much publicized rant. On the same day of the publication, Scaramucci said on Twitter that he's sometimes prone to "colorful language":

Variety notes that Scaramucci was slated to be on a panel called “Scaramucci ‘Splains,” which we assume is some kind of spinoff on the Nickelodeon favorite Clarissa Explains It All. He was also set to be on a panel speaking on the future of the Republican party (columnist David Frum was expected to join).

Event organizers addressed Scaramucci's cancelation with this statement:

Sponsored message

Politicon, for the uninitiated, is billed as a non-partisan and "unconventional political convention" that includes debates, panels, films, and podcasts, as well as appearances from politicians, celebrities, journalists, and anyone that's tangentially related to the political sphere. This year's lineup includes the likes of CNN's Jake Tapper, Ann Coulter, America Ferrera, California Congressman Ted Lieu, and actors and writers from the show Veep. Politicon is, presumably, the only convention where it's appropriate to cosplay as Chester A. Arthur.

Politicon will run on Saturday and Sunday at the Pasadena Convention Center, 300 E Green St, Pasadena. You can buy tickets here.

One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.

You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.

If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief

Make your tax-deductible donation today