Trump calls Manigault Newman ‘that dog’
As arbitration threat looms, ex-aide says she won’t be ‘bullied’
WASHINGTON — Former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman declared Tuesday that she “will not be silenced” by President Donald Trump, remaining defiant as her public feud with her former boss appeared set to shift from the court of public opinion to a possible battle in a court of law.
Manigault Newman, who is promoting her new book, “Unhinged,” about her time in Trump’s orbit, commented just hours after Trump’s campaign announced it was filing an arbitration action against her, alleging that she violated a secrecy agreement.
“I will not be intimidated,” she said. “I’m not going to be bullied by Donald Trump.”
Earlier Tuesday White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that she couldn’t guarantee that the American people will never hear President Donald Trump uttering the Nword on an audio recording, as Manigault Newman claims in her book depicting the president as a racist.
“I can’t guarantee anything, but I can tell you that the president addressed this question directly,” Sanders said. “I can tell you that I’ve never heard it.”
The briefing by Sanders came after Trump referred to Manigault Newman as “that dog” in a tweet. Trump praised his chief of staff, John Kelly, for firing Manigault Newman last year. The former reality television star was the highest-ranking black employee in the White House.
“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!”
Trump’s tweet came shortly after Manigault Newman appeared on “CBS This Morning” and released a new recording purportedly of a discussion in October 2016 among campaign aides about how to handle a tape on which Trump is said to have used the N-word.
In tweets Monday night, Trump denied ever using “such a terrible and disgusting word,” and his aides have denied having strategized about how to contain the damage if such a tape surfaced. Manigault Newman has said she heard the tape of Trump using the term, which she said dates from Trump’s years hosting the NBC reality show “The Apprentice.”
Sanders defended Trump’s use of the word “dog” in reference to Manigault Newman, saying that the president was simply exasperated with his former aide.
Some Trump critics have argued that the president’s recent comments attacking the intelligence of Manigault Newman, Rep. Maxine Waters, DCalif., CNN host Don Lemon and others reveal a pattern of racebased insults against prominent African-Americans.
He has repeatedly referred to Waters as “low IQ” and called Lemon “the dumbest man on television.”
At Tuesday’s briefing, Sanders responded that “this has absolutely nothing to do with race” and sought to defend Trump by pointing out that he has attacked all types of people.
“The fact is, the president’s an equal opportunity person that calls things like he sees it,” Sanders said. “He always fights fire with fire, and he certainly doesn’t hold back on doing that across the board.”
Manigault Newman also disclosed that she has been interviewed by the office of special counsel Robert Mueller, who is probing Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible coordination with the Trump campaign.
“There’s a lot of corruption that went on both in the campaign and in the White House, and I’m going to blow the whistle on all of it,” Manigault Newman said.