Despite Scaramucci's accusations, the law allowed a New Yorker reporter to record the vulgar phone call that led to his firing - here's the audio
But a spokesperson for The New Yorker said Thursday that reporter Ryan Lizza wasn't required by law to get Scaramucci's consent to record the conversation.
Scaramucci called Lizza last month and insulted White House aides using vulgar language during the phone interview. The former Wall Street financier was fired July 31 after only 10 days on the job.
He used #lowlife to describe Lizza on Twitter on Wednesday night:
In an episode of "The New Yorker Radio Hour", Lizza said he was in his bedroom at home on July 26 when his phone rang around 10:30 p.m. He named the resulting audio file "insane Scaramucci interview."
The next day, The New Yorker published what Scaramucci said in that interview. Lizza said he talked to Scaramucci before they published, explaining that it was newsworthy because he was the White House communications director, which Scaramucci said he understood.
"What I want to do is I want to f------ kill all the leakers and I want to get the president's agenda on track so we can succeed for the American people," Scaramucci told Lizza that night.
And: "I'm not Steve Bannon, I'm not trying to suck my own c---," he said, speaking of Trump's chief strategist. "I'm not trying to build my own brand off the f------ strength of the President. I'm here to serve the country."
While the text reads as if Scaramucci was furious and yelling, the audio reveals that the two were laughing, sometimes joking with each other. Lizza calls him "buddy" at one point. You can listen to the audio for the first time in the podcast. The expletives have been bleeped out.
Scaramucci is planning a media tour next week, beginning Sunday with an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC's "This Week." He'll follow that up with an appearance Monday on Stephen Colbert's "The Late Show."