Trump acts surprised by Omarosa firing on new secret tape
Omarosa Manigault Newman on Monday morning released a recording of a private phone call with President Trump after her firing from the White House.
On the call, Trump says that he did not know that the former contestant on “The Apprentice” had been fired. He also suggested he was disappointed in the firing.
{mosads}”Omarosa, what’s going on?” Trump can be heard saying in the brief clip, which aired for the first time Monday morning on NBC’s “Today.”
“I just saw on the news that you’re thinking about leaving. What happened?” Trump asks Manigault Newman, who had already been fired by White House chief of staff John Kelly.
“General Kelly came to me and said that you guys wanted me to leave,” Manigault Newman replied in the recording.
#Breaking: @OMAROSA provides @NBCNews with this exclusive excerpt of a recording of a phone call that she says she received from President Trump the day after White House Chief of Staff John Kelly fired her. pic.twitter.com/OJe47RdcDC
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) August 13, 2018
“No,” Trump said. “Nobody even told me about it. You know, they run a big operation but I didn’t know it. I didn’t know that. Goddamn it.”
“I don’t love you leaving at all,” he added.
This is the second tape of a private phone call released by Manigault Newman, who has written a memoir on her time at the White House. The new tape will raise questions about whether the former White House aide has other tapes from her time serving Trump.
Manigault Newman on Sunday released a recording of Kelly firing her from her White House position. Manigault Newman apparently secretly recorded this conversation with Kelly in the White House Situation Room, from which electronic devices are supposed to be barred.
“I think it’s important to understand that if we make this a friendly departure, we can all be, you know you can look at your time here in the White House as a year of service to the nation,” Kelly can be heard saying in the recording. “And then you can go on without any type of difficulty in the future, relative to your reputation.”
Manigault Newman claims this was a threat.
“I had to protect myself and I had no regret about it,” Manigault Newman said on NBC.
The White House has pressed back hard at Manigault Newman, casting her as a former employee unhappy about her firing.
“The very idea a staff member would sneak a recording device into the White House Situation Room, shows a blatant disregard for our national security — and then to brag about it on national television further proves the lack of character and integrity of this disgruntled former White House employee,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement emailed to reporters on Sunday.
Besides the recordings, Manigault Newman has accused Trump of using a racial slur to describe African-Americans while working on “The Apprentice,” claiming tapes exist. Manigault Newman has said she did not personally hear Trump use the word.
She also claims she was offered hush money to keep quiet about her time at the White House.
While working in the White House, Manigault Newman frequently praised the president, at one point saying all critics of Trump would eventually have to bow down to him.
Trump over the weekend told reporters that the reality television show star is a “lowlife.”
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