Omarosa Manigault has been all over the news this week with excerpts from her new book, where she’s accused President Donald Trump of racism, said he’s mentally declining, and claimed to have recorded conversations with him without his knowledge.
On Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press, Manigault played tapes she recorded of White House Chief of Staff John Kelly while in the Situation Room.
In one of the recordings, Kelly was in the process of firing her in December and tried to plan the spin that would surround her departure. On the tape, Kelly said that if they made this a “friendly departure” and if the story was played as a year of service to the nation by Manigault, she could “go on without any type of difficulty in the future relative to your reputation.”
Manigault told NBC host Chuck Todd that she took that as a threat.
“It’s very obvious,” she said. “It’s a threat. He went on to say that, ‘Things could get ugly you.’ … That’s downright criminal. If I didn’t have these recordings, no one in America would believe me. No one. So, I protected myself, and I’m so glad I did.”
In another portion of her recording, Manigault asked Kelly if Trump was aware that she was being fired, and Kelly replied that this was a “non-negotiable discussion.” Manigault said that since this was her first conversation with Kelly, she’d like to ask some questions. But Kelly said that her departure had to do with “some pretty serious integrity violations.”
In the recording, Kelly also said that everybody on the staff works for Kelly and not the president, and Manigault responded to that on Meet the Press by saying, “It tells you Donald Trump has no idea what’s happening in the White House. No clue.”
This is crazy: Omarosa secretly recorded Chief of Staff John Kelly IN THE SITUATION ROOM pic.twitter.com/08AWjEpqJb
— Robert Maguire (@RobertMaguire_) August 12, 2018
With the release of those tapes, the internet was left breathless.
If Omarosa carried for example a cellphone into the Situation Room, then not only did she record conversations there, but so potentially has any country or criminal organization that thought to hack her phone
— David Frum (@davidfrum) August 12, 2018
https://twitter.com/JayCaruso/status/1028644804870193153
Who hired her, Ronna? Who gave her a senior title and maxed out her salary? Who runs the White House where Omarosa got an unsecured cell phone into the damn Situation Room?
— Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) August 12, 2018
Gee, who was it, Madame Chairwoman?? https://t.co/sxUdSXpDlY
Who in their right mind thinks it was appropriate to give someone like Omarosa a position in the White House to begin with? https://t.co/wg75QmevH8
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) August 12, 2018
Omarosa being able to tape in the Situation Room isn’t funny.
— VoteVets (@votevets) August 12, 2018
We understand the absurdity, but we implore people to not make it into a joke.
These kinds of security breaches in the WH can cost troops’ lives, and @POTUS is ultimately responsible. This is on Trump.
Pretty fascinated that you can just swan into the Situation Room with either your personal cellphone or some other recording device, honestly. #Omarosa
— Niall Stanage (@NiallStanage) August 12, 2018
Meanwhile, the GOP’s official Twitter account blasted her.
Omarosa will clearly say anything to make a buck. It’s obvious that no one should believe a word she says. #OmarosaUnhinged
— GOP (@GOP) August 12, 2018
Omarosa has been on her book tour for all of ten minutes, and she’s already being exposed as a terrible liar. Right out of the gate, she contradicted a core narrative in her book. #OmarosaUnhinged pic.twitter.com/LBJjZiOixM
— GOP (@GOP) August 12, 2018
On Saturday, Trump called Manigault a “low life.” Manigault’s book Unhinged: An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House will be released this Tuesday.
