President Donald Trump has responded to Omarosa Manigault Newman’s claim that there is a recording from the set of “The Apprentice” in which he uses the n-word, writing on Twitter that he doesn’t “have that word in my vocabulary.”
The president said that Mark Burnett, who produced “The Apprentice,” called him and assured him there are “no tapes of the Apprentice where I used such a terrible and disgusting word as attributed by Wacky and Deranged Omarosa.”
He went on to assert that Manigault Newman made up the tape — she claimed three unnamed sources told her of the tape and its contents — and pointed to her “many recent quotes saying such wonderful and powerful things about me – a true Champion of Civil Rights – until she got fired” as evidence that her claims about him from her upcoming book, “Unhinged,” are only those of a disgruntled employee, as White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has categorized them.
.@MarkBurnettTV called to say that there are NO TAPES of the Apprentice where I used such a terrible and disgusting word as attributed by Wacky and Deranged Omarosa. I don’t have that word in my vocabulary, and never have. She made it up. Look at her MANY recent quotes saying….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2018
….such wonderful and powerful things about me – a true Champion of Civil Rights – until she got fired. Omarosa had Zero credibility with the Media (they didn’t want interviews) when she worked in the White House. Now that she says bad about me, they will talk to her. Fake News!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2018
On Monday evening, Manigault Newman appeared on MSNBC’s “Hardball” and continued to claim that she heard a tape of Trump using the n-word. She said that those who have the tape plan to use it for a “politically motivated” reason and that they used to be part of the production staff for “The Apprentice.”
“They took it upon themselves to actually document this so that they could actually expose him for the racist that he is,” she said. She said that she heard Trump on the audio tape using the word multiple times and that it was in reference to Kwame Jackson, who was on the show in the first season.
“It sounded as if he used it every day,” Manigault Newman said.
Burnett’s representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Reached via email by Variety, Jackson said, “Hard pass on all things Omarosa, no thank you. By me commenting or you covering the story it simply adds fuel and attention to tomfoolery.”
The rumors of the existence of the recording of Trump making such a remark date to the 2016 campaign, and Manigault Newman said that they were serious enough for the communications staff to even hold a conference call. She said that Katrina Pierson, one of Trump’s campaign spokespersons, denied Manigault Newman’s claim that she confirmed the existence of the tape.
“That was an absolute lie, in fact, the first that any of us ever heard about this ‘Apprentice’ tape was from Omarosa,” Pierson told Fox News.
