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The former White House communications director touted his "centrist" credentials in response to a dropped Super Bowl ad from T-Mobile.
Anthony Scaramucci doesn't want the public -- or advertisers -- to get the wrong idea about his political beliefs.
The short-term White House communications director clarified that he is a "centrist" who has "been a gay rights activist my whole life," after he was asked by TMZ why an opportunity for a Super Bowl advertisement fell apart.
The celebrity gossip site previously reported that the phone carrier T-Mobile had pitched a surprise ad featuring Scaramucci, where for "mid-6 figures" he would stand at a podium yelling "fake news."
To TMZ, Scaramucci speculated that the his resume with the Trump administration was to blame for the axed campaign.
"We're in a very polarized society right now, so my guess is it's a combination of things. But the weird thing about it is, I've been a gay rights activist my whole life, so because I've sided with Trump on the election, I guess I don't get any credit for that. I'm actually a mixed bag politically and quite centrist," he said in an airport video interview published Friday.
"It was probably an idea that got proposed, and then went up the chain of command and got killed. That's probably what happened," he added.
Of course, Scaramucci would not have become a household name if it weren't for the Trump administration, who appointed the former Goldman Sachs financier as communications director in July. Following a profanity-filled interview with The New Yorker, Scaramucci was fired by President Trump 10 days later, on the recommendation of the chief of staff, John Kelly.
Scaramucci's record of supporting gay rights dates back to at least 2012. In January of that year, he cited being "for Gay Marriage" in a series of tweets that survived a purge of social media posts prior to working with Trump. Scaramucci was clear: "Republicans should support gay marriage." He even cheered when his mom told him she supports same-sex marriage, he said.
In November 2016, Scaramucci identified as "a gay rights activist" to the BBC. And it's not just words. That year, he attended an equality roundtable with Vice President Joe Biden and Chad Griffin, the president of the Human Rights Campaign. His company, Skybridge Co., has donated to LGBT groups like HRC.
Watch Scaramucci's interview below.
