Tuesday morning the fallout from Omarosa‘s media tour promoting her new book “Unhinged” continued for the Trump administration when the former White House aide appeared on CBS with a new audio recoding.
On that new recording is what Omarosa claims to be a discussion from October 2016 in which Lynne Patton, then-assistant to Eric Trump, spokesperson Katrina Pierson and campaign communications director Jason Miller try and foil out a plan to deal with the potential backlash over Trump allegedly using the N-word on his former show The Apprentice. Those claims also come from Omarosa who says she’s actually heard a tape of Trump making the racial slur.
POTUS says former White House staffer @Omarosa lied when she called him a racist who has said the N-word on tape. But a new recording, obtained by @CBSNews overnight, seems to back up Omarosa's story that several Trump advisers discussed an alleged tape during the 2016 campaign. https://t.co/tV3R6P2TvE
— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) August 14, 2018
Via CBS:
“I am trying to find at least what context it was used in to help us maybe try to figure out a way to spin it,” Pierson is heard saying.
Patton then described a conversation she had with then-candidate Trump about making the slur.
Patton: “I said, ‘Well, sir, can you think of anytime where this happened?’ And he said, ‘no.'”
Omarosa: “Well, that is not true.”
Patton: “He goes, how do you think I should handle it and I told him exactly what you just said, Omarosa, which is well, it depends on what scenario you are talking about. And he said, well, why don’t you just go ahead and put it to bed.”
Pierson: “He said. No, he said it. He is embarrassed by it.”
Although anything Omarosa says needs to be taken with a huge grain of salt, there seems to be some truth thus far behind what she’s claiming.
Patton and Pierson for instance have denied any conversations regarding the possible N-word tape ever taking place with Pierson saying on Fox News Monday night “No, Ed (Henry). That did not happen. Sounds like she is writing a script for a movie.” Tuesday morning however was a different story for Patton and Pierson who released the following joint statement.
My name is Lynne Patton and I am a senior official in the Trump Administration.
White House leadership, both past and present, can confirm that I was the closest confidante & friend to Ms. Manigault-Newman during her tenure at the White House, Transition and Campaign – texting and speaking multiple times per day.
To that end, Omarosa attempted to contact me just two days ago, but I refused to accept her call.
Like Ms. Manigault-Newman, I have also known and worked for both the President and his family for over a decade and am confident that they would collectively confirm that I know them far better than she.
To be clear, at no time did I participate in a conference call with Katrina Pierson advising me, Jason Miller and Omarosa Manigault-Newman that Frank Luntz had heard President Donald J. Trump use a derogatory racial term – a claim that Luntz himself has also denied.
What I can confirm is the following:
On December 12, 2017, at approximately 11:30PM (EST) – a date I now know to be the evening Omarosa was relieved of her official duties by General Kelly – I received a telephone call from her informing me that she had personally heard a second-hand recording of President Trump using the “N-word” in a derogatory fashion.
She proceeded to tell me the full name of the individual who played this second-hand tape for her, from whom the primary audio tape had originated, as well as the specific context of the President’s usage of this term and to whom the derogatory term was allegedly directed.
Omarosa also proceeded to inform me that she had officially submitted her resignation to General Kelly and that I should promptly do the same before the audio surfaced.
The next morning, I immediately notified senior communications officials and a Trump family member of the same, only to discover the true nature of her departure was termination.
Today, the individual who Omarosa confirmed to me as having played the second-hand audio recording to her last year confirmed that they have no tape, never had possession of a tape, never claimed to have possession of a tape and never played such a tape for Ms. Manigault-Newman.
Tonight, on the MSNBC program, Hardball, Omarosa revealed to the general public what she had told me last December: That former Apprentice producer, Bill Pruitt, was the original source of the “N-word” tape.
Bill Pruitt is a mutual friend.
I just spoke to Bill Pruitt tonight before releasing this statement.
He confirmed to me (before Hardball had even gone off the air) that he does NOT have an audio tape of President Trump using the “N-word” and has NEVER had an audio tape of President Trump using the “N-word.” Period.
Suffice it to say that the past few weeks have been wrought with disappointment, immense sadness, anger and outright disgust.
Based upon her conflicting accounts and the newfound information revealed in my statement, it should be abundantly clear to everyone that not only is her book a complete work of fiction, but that the existence of this elusive “N-word” tape is a figment of her imagination and merely a destructive tool of manipulation applied only when it best serves her interests.
Like countless other minorities and women, the President has given me the opportunity of a lifetime to rise up through the ranks of The Trump Organization and now proudly serve this country.
Therefore, unless directed otherwise, this will be my only statement on this baseless accusation and imaginary audio tape, as falsely claimed by a former friend.
My primary and sole focus remains the low-income and public housing residents of New York & New Jersey, as the President would expect it to be — and as the President has hired me to do.
Thank you. 🇺🇸 #MAGA
Trump also weighed in in the most presidential way possible presumably calling Omarosa ‘crazed’ a ‘low-life’ and a ‘dog’ which seems pretty unprecedented for the Chief Executive of the United States.
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. Good work by General Kelly for quickly firing that dog!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2018
You also can’t help but notice too that the POTUS called a female a dog. What a guy.
DONALD TRUMP CAMPAIGN SEEKS LEGAL ACTION AGAINST OMAROSA
In response to Omarosa’s media blitz and released recordings the Trump Campaign has filed arbitration action against Manigault Newman on Tuesday for allegedly breaching a confidentiality agreement that was signed in 2016.
Trump’s campaign, formally named Donald J. Trump for President, took the action Tuesday against Manigault Newman with the American Arbitration Association in New York City, the official told NBC News.
The action is related to claims made by Manigault Newman in her new book, “Unhinged: An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House,” in which she slammed the president as racist and in mental decline.
This latest recording from Omarosa comes just days after originally releasing audio of her Situation Room firing by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly.
