“If you want to talk about the chief of staff, we have had odds. We have had differences. When I said we were brothers from the podium, that's because we're—some brothers are like Cain and Abel,” Scaramucci said, referring to the sons of Adam and Eve, one of whom killed the other in a fit of jealous rage. “Other brothers can fight with each other and get along. I don't know if this is repairable or not, that will be up to the president. He's the chief of staff. He's responsible for understanding and uncovering and helping me do that in the White House which is why I put the tweet out last night.”

That description was sharply at odds with Scaramucci’s own spin last week when he took the job. It had been reported that Priebus staunchly opposed the appointment, when he used a similar metaphor to a different end.

“Reince and I have been personal friends for six years,” he said. “We are a little bit like brothers where we rough each other up once in a while, which is totally normal for brothers. There’s a lot of people in here who have brothers, and so you get that. But he’s a dear friend.” He added: “I don't have any friction with Reince.”

On Thursday, Scaramucci implied that journalists’ conclusion that he was going after Priebus was proof that Priebus was the leaker, since the reporters would know who their own sources were.

“When I put out a tweet, and I put Reince's name in a tweet, they are all making the assumption it's him because journalists know who the leakers are,” he said. “If Reince wants to explain he's not a leaker, let him do that.” At the end of the interview, he added, “People know my history between me and Reince. I can speak for my own actions. He's going to need to speak for his own actions.”

Scaramucci’s attack on Priebus was the most notable but hardly the only interesting part of the half-hour-long phone call, a free-flowing, sometimes contentious and sometimes jocular exchange between—as Scaramucci kept mentioning—two Queens-bred Italian Americans. Scaramucci also invoked Joe Paterno (of all people) on the subject of honor, bragged about his business prowess, and salted the conversation with homespun idioms (“the fish stinks from the head down,” he said, though confusingly he was not referring to Trump, who he said does not stink). For the second time in a week he spoke openly on CNN about a private conversation he’d had with the president. Scaramucci also said Trump might veto a Russian sanctions bill that’s drawn pledges of support from veto-proof majorities in Congress.

Although he was irate about the disclosure, Scaramucci said leaks about internecine West Wing fighting paled in seriousness with those about national security. Last week, for example, The Washington Post reported that Trump had killed a covert CIA program to funnel weapons to Syrian rebels opposed to Bashar al-Assad. (The president himself appeared to confirm the covert program in a tweet.)