President Donald Trump could lose the support of more of his allies if he continues with his divisive rhetoric, former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci told CNN's "New Day" on Monday.
Scaramucci said "there's definitely linkage" between the racist manifesto of the suspect in the mass shooting in El Paso and the Trump's statements, but "I think it would be unfair to blame the president" for the massacre.
Scaramucci said he is a supporter of Trump's policies but not his divisive language, saying "he should not be using those words. He is the leader of the free world. The country stands for these ideas, the first name of the country is united. It's not disunited."
When asked why Trump does it, Scaramucci said, "I can only surmise he thinks that there's value to creating this sort of combativeness and this sort of combustibility. He thinks its value to his base, that it's perhaps stoking them up. I think one of the fears that they would have if you look at the polling numbers that they have to get the base out with the highest level of participation possible."
But Scaramucci said he would argue otherwise, insisting Trump "needs to attract moderates and independents and rebuild a coalition to win in states like Michigan and Pennsylvania."
He added the way Trump goes about it with his nasty rhetoric makes no sense and risks alienating those who would otherwise back him.
"There's a large group of people" who currently support Trump or would like to support him, but "If he keeps it up, they'll say the policies, they're great but you know what? This sort of rhetoric and this sort of disunity sort of stuff is overpowering the policy," Scaramucci stressed.