Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) is calling President Trump the “Grand Wizard of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave” in the wake of tapes released by former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman and the president’s former lawyer Michael Cohen.
“Omarosa and Cohen are crushing this guy (Grand Wizard of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave),” Jeffries tweeted on Tuesday, referring to a Ku Klux Klan title and sharing a CBS report about an audio recording that Manigault Newman says proves the existence of a tape on which Trump can be heard using the N-word.
{mosads}The tape contains a conversation between Manigault Newman, former Trump campaign spokeswoman Katrina Pierson and Lynn Patton, a top official in the Department of Housing and Urban Development, according to CBS News.
In the conversation, which appears to have taken place during the 2016 presidential campaign, Patton says, “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 then replies, “He said — no, he said it. He is embarrassed.”
Patton and Pierson released a joint statement disputing Manigault Newman’s interpretation of the tape. The two said that they were discussing the possibility that a tape exists of the president using the racial slur, but that the president confirmed to them that he had never said it.
The tapes are being released as Manigault Newman promotes her new book, “Unhinged: An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House.”
Trump earlier Tuesday took to Twitter, calling her a “crazed, crying lowlife” and praising chief of staff John Kelly for “quickly firing that dog!”