Fox News’s Ed Henry on Tuesday clashed with former Trump campaign spokeswoman Katrina Pierson, accusing her of changing her story on whether she knew if President Trump has used a racial slur.
In a heated interview on Fox News, Henry confronted Pierson over her conflicting claims about a recording released by Omarosa Manigault Newman of a phone call involving several Trump campaign aides.
{mosads}In the recording, Pierson appears to acknowledge that Trump has used the N-word as the three aides discuss the possible existence of a tape in which the president uses the slur while on the set of “The Apprentice.”
Pierson says during that call that Trump said it and that “he is embarrassed.”
Henry accused Pierson of contradicting what she told him Monday night.
“You told me you never said that,” Henry said. “You’re on tape.”
“That’s not what we were talking about,” Pierson replied. “That’s not the question you were asking me.”
Pierson said that she says on the recording that Trump used the N-word because she wanted to move the conversation with Manigault Newman along, not because she actually knew Trump has said the world.
She portrayed Manigualt Newman as obsessed over the issue.
“If that’s the truth, why didn’t you tell me, ‘Ed, you know, I don’t know all the details of this book, I haven’t seen it, but I did say, “Yes, he used the N-word” to move the conversation along?’” a frustrated Henry said. ”You didn’t say that last night. You changed the story today.”
Pierson and Henry spoke over each other for a large portion of the interview, arguing over what Henry said were inconsistencies in Pierson’s comments as well as additional rumors about the tapes and Trump’s alleged comments and transcripts of other phone calls.
Pierson said that the claims Manigault Newman makes in her new book and the recording obtained by CBS News refer to two different phone calls and a number of other discussions.
“We’re not going to get sidetracked on two different tapes,” a Henry said, seeking to cut Pierson off.
Trump tweeted Monday that there are “no tapes” of him using the word, saying that he doesn’t have it in his “vocabulary.”
But the White House on Wednesday said that it could not guarantee there was no tape of Trump using the N-word.