EXCLUSIVE: @OMAROSA tells @chucktodd that John Kelly firing was a "threat." #MTP pic.twitter.com/AFjoZcBKgO
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) August 12, 2018
Despite her firing by President Donald Trump’s second chief of staff, John Kelly, back in December, former The Apprentice and Celebrity Big Brother star Omarosa Manigault-Newman is still in the spotlight thanks to her new book, Unhinged, which reportedly documents her short tenure in the West Wing. The past week has seen all kinds of bits leak from the book’s first previews and reviews, but Omarosa trumped them all during Sunday’s Meet the Press when she provided host Chuck Todd with what she claimed was a recording of Kelly she had secretly made in the White House’s Situation Room.
“If I did not have this recording, people would still believe the false, incredible story that I was running around the White House,” she explained. “That I tried to charge the residence at the White House. It’s a lie. If I didn’t have this recording, people would still think I was trying to set off alarms. So yes, I had to protect myself, and I have no regrets about it.”
According to the clip from the alleged recording Meet the Press then played, a voice identified by Omarosa as Kelly talks about engineering a “friendly departure” for her:
“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. And then you can go on without any type of difficulty in the future relative to your reputation.”
When Todd asked Omarosa how she reacted to Kelly’s alleged comment, she said she interpreted as a “threat” and took measures to protect herself. Like, for example, purportedly making a secret recording of Trump’s chief of staff — as well as Trump himself — while in the White House. The tapings have not yet been verified, of course, though the fact that they’re being paraded around adds some credence to rumors about Omarosa making secret recordings that dropped as early as January.
As of this writing, the president has yet to tweet or say anything publicly about Omarosa’s highly viral appearance on Meet the Press, or the recordings she reportedly made. He did describe her as a “low life” when a member of the White House Press Corps asked him about her book on Saturday, but has otherwise said nothing else.
The same cannot be said for practically everyone else:
Who in their right mind thinks it was appropriate to hire @OMAROSA to work in the White House in the first place? https://t.co/jxXmbwzfMI
— Preet Bharara (@PreetBharara) August 12, 2018
There is just one small problem with all this pushback to Omarosa coming from everyone in the West Wing and the RNC….
TRUMP GAVE HER A SENIOR JOB IN HIS ADMINISTRATION
— Sam Stein (@samstein) August 12, 2018
Omarosa needs a lawyer—she made a recording of the White House Chief of Staff in a classified area called a SCIF.
But someone needs to ask John Kelly: Why did you feel the need to have Omarosa’s exit conversation in a SCIF? Is it because said something you didn’t want recorded? https://t.co/75bw2RwbZF
— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) August 12, 2018
Finding out that Omarosa was not a particularly loyal employee is like learning that the guy calling himself a “wallet inspector” is not, in fact, licensed to take your wallet.
— David Weigel (@daveweigel) August 12, 2018
https://twitter.com/lukeoneil47/status/1028655187395846145
https://twitter.com/andylassner/status/1028668738516672514
(Via NBC News)