Anthony Scaramucci, a former White House communications director, said he has threatened to sue a Tufts University student and campus newspaper for publishing a critical opinion article because students “can’t flat out lie” about him, according an article in a Tufts student magazine.
“When you guys get a little older and you start running businesses — especially if you are an entrepreneur — and your reputation in this business is super valuable, you will fight aggressively defamatory public remarks that are made about you, whether they are in a student newspaper or a much larger publication,” Scaramucci told the Tufts Observer.
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The opinion piece, written by graduate student Camilo A. Caballero, called for Scaramucci’s removal from the advisory board of Tufts’ Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. In response, a lawyer for Scaramucci demanded that the paper retract “false and defamatory allegations of fact” about his client and apologize.
In the interview with the Tufts Observer, Scaramucci said criticism of his threats to sue the newspaper were “baby-ish.”
“[Fletcher students] are 25-26 year-old adults,” he said. “They’ve got to hold themselves in an adult world very shortly.”
Scaramucci said he hopes Caballero and the student paper, the Tufts Daily, will apologize, but said he believes his response was appropriate.
“You can’t play in a big boy or a big girl pond and then, if you don’t like the reaction that someone has to you, you can’t claim, ‘Well, wait a minute. I’m not in a big boy pond,’ ” he said.
Abigail Feldman can be reached at abigail.feldman@globe.com.