“What happened to being straight?” asked Cuomo.

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Scaramucci: “I’m being straight. I’m straightly, straightly not answering your question.” The failure to answer, said Cuomo, suggested that he was confirming that it was indeed Trump who had ordered the dismissal.

Smart move to ask about the mechanics of this episode. Politico reported early Tuesday that Short was on the outs with the White House and Scaramucci even confirmed as much to the news site. Apparently Short himself wasn’t looped in, however — a circumstance about which Scaramucci later expressed regret in a chat with reporters on the White House driveway. “This is the problem with the leaking,” said Scaramucci. “This is actually a terrible thing. Let’s say I’m firing Michael Short today. The fact that you guys know about it before he does really upsets me as a human being and as a Roman Catholic.”

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The Trump White House, where everything is mishandled.

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As Scaramucci told Cuomo on Wednesday, the mishandling extended into the night. Scaramucci: “I called [Short] last night and I said to him, the reason you were let go was because someone above my rank — I’m not going to say who — said that you needed to be let go and you weren’t being let go. And so I had to send a managerial message to the people that are working for me that I’m going to do what I say. I also report to somebody. If he asks me to do something, I’m actually going to go do it. I’m not a politician, Chris. And I’m never going to be a politician. What I’m going to be is an entrepreneurial business executive that’s gonna try to inject some accountability into the system.”

Upon his hiring last week, Scaramucci said that he will report directly to the president.

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More on Short: “I didn’t want to fire him as much as we wanted to give him the opportunity to resign, which he did.”

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Yet more: “I talked to him last night by phone and I said to him, ‘Hey, I’m here to help you find another job. Because whatever happened right or wrong inside the administration, you’ve got a long life, I’ve got a long life, and let me help you build your career.’ I also believe in the process of redemption, so if somebody does something wrong on a job and then go find another job and try to do that right. I wrote that in my book. People are fallible people, myself included. I have a whole phone book of fallibility about myself.”

It just added a page or two.

In the interview, Scaramucci said he’d never met “the person personally.” And he said he wouldn’t mention Short’s name — as if it hadn’t been published in 10 million news accounts already. Cuomo likewise said he wasn’t using the name. “We’re both compassionate people,” said Scaramucci.

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