Scaramucci: Trump should stop ‘inhumane’ policy of separating families

Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci on Monday slammed the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy that is leading to the removal of migrant children from their families at the southern border, calling it “inhumane” and cruel.”

“I’m not here to defend the Democrats or the Republicans. I’m here to say that it’s very bad policy and the president is a humane guy,” Scaramucci said on CNN’s “New Day.”

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Scaramucci defended President Trump’s record, saying he is doing an “amazing job” in the White House, but said the president does not need the “imagery” of the zero tolerance policy. 

“He’s doing an amazing job on so many different fronts and he doesn’t need this type of visual or this type of imagery,” Scaramucci said.

He urged Trump to “stop listening” to his advisers on the matter and instead “step in” and end the “atrocious policy,” something he echoed in a tweet later in the day.

You can’t simultaneously argue that family separation isn’t happening, that it’s being used as a deterrent, that the Bible justifies it and that it’s @TheDemocrats fault. @POTUS is not being served well by his advisors on this issue.

— Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) June 18, 2018

“So, let’s knock it off,” he added on CNN. “Because this is very, very bad for the Republican Party, and it’s very bad for the president.” 

The backlash comes after Attorney General Jeff Sessions earlier this year instructed the Justice Department to prioritize the criminal prosecution of individuals trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally. 

The Associated Press last week reported that roughly 2,000 children had been removed from their families in recent weeks.

Scaramucci, who briefly served as the White House communications director last summer, over the weekend wrote a series of tweets urging Trump to end the separations, saying the president “can reverse it and I hope he does.”

“On Fathers Day we shouldn’t be seen as a country that separates it’s parents from their children,” Scaramucci wrote in a Sunday tweet. “Just isn’t right and we have better values than that. But our divided government is actually a disaster.”

Updated at 3:35 p.m.