Trump-Omarosa feud grows
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump escalated his messy clash with former aide Omarosa Manigault Newman on Tuesday, referring to the longtime colleague, who had been the top African-American in his White House, as “that dog!”
The pressure on Manigault Newman increased, as the Trump presidential campaign filed arbitration action against her, alleging a breach of a confidentiality agreement. A campaign official said the action was filed with the American Arbitration Association.
Trump tweeted a barrage of insults Tuesday morning as Manigault Newman continued promoting her White
House tell-all and releasing secret audio recordings. Her book paints a damning picture of Trump, including her claim he used racial slurs on the set of his reality show “The Apprentice.”
“When you give a crazed, crying lowlife a break, and give her a job at the White House, I guess it just didn’t work out,” Trump said. “Good work by General Kelly for quickly firing that dog!” John Kelly is White House chief of staff.
Manigault Newman fired back in an interview on MSNBC, saying: “If he would say that publicly, what else would he say about me privately?”
She added: “He has absolutely no respect for women, for African-Americans.”
While Trump trades in insults on a near daily basis, deeming Manigault Newman a “dog” was a stunning move in a row that touched on several sensitive issues in Trump’s White House, including a lack of racial diversity among senior officials, security concerns — Manigault Newman taped her firing in the White House Situation Room — and extraordinary measures such as non-disclosure agreements to keep exemployees quiet.
Manigault Newman also said on MSNBC that she’s been interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller’s team investigating Russian election interference, though she did not provide any details. And she asserted that Trump knew in advance about the release of Hillary Clinton’s emails by WikiLeaks, but did not provide any evidence.
Trump has also pushed back against Manigault Newman’s claim she had heard an audiotape of him using the N-word. He tweeted that he had received a call from the producer of “The Apprentice” assuring him “there are NO TAPES of the Apprentice where I used such a terrible and disgusting word as attributed by Wacky and Deranged Omarosa.”
Trump insisted, “I don’t have that word in my vocabulary, and never have.” He said Manigault Newman had called him “a true Champion of Civil Rights” until she was fired.
Manigault Newman, the former White House liaison to black voters, writes in her new memoir that she’d heard such tapes existed. She said Sunday that she had listened to one after her book published.
On CBS Tuesday, Manigault Newman released another audio recording that she said showed campaign workers discussing an alleged recording of Trump using the racial slur. The White House and the campaign did not immediately respond to questions.
One of the people allegedly featured on the tape is Katrina Pierson, an adviser to Trump’s reelection campaign who served as a spokeswoman for his 2016 campaign. Pierson has said she never heard Trump use this type of language and said on Fox that the only person she heard talking about a tape was Manigault Newman. The tape appears to show Pierson saying of Trump: “He said it. He’s embarrassed.”
Asked if the book can be backed up by email or recordings, Manigault Newman said on CBS that every quote in the book “can be verified, corroborated and it’s well documented,” suggesting she may have more information to release.
The dispute has been building for days as Manigault Newman promotes her memoir “Unhinged,” which came out Tuesday.
In a series of interviews, Manigault Newman also revealed two audio recordings from her time at the White House, including portions of a recording of her firing by Kelly, which she says occurred in the highsecurity Situation Room, and a phone call with Trump after she was fired.
Manigault Newman says she has more recordings. Asked on MSNBC’s “Hardball” if special counsel Robert Mueller — investigating possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia — would be interested in any of them, she said, “If his office calls again, anything they want, I’ll share.”