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It’s understandable that many are dismissing her as lacking credibility.

Remember when @OMAROSA was running around during the primaries saying Trump was definitely not a racist and she could vouch for that because she knew him?! Well, I do, and here’s the tape. #YouCantRunFromTheInternet #girlbye pic.twitter.com/UYDEpl0OPr

— Charles M. Blow (@CharlesMBlow) August 10, 2018

You can certainly question her motives. She was an important validator for Trump’s racism during the campaign insisting categorically that she knows him and he’s not a racist. She remained a validator and apologist for him right through his ‘thank you’ for African Americans for not voting, his ‘good people on both sides’ quip on the Charlottesville riots-where the marching white supremacists actually killed someone-and through his constant attacking any AA’s intelligence who dares to criticize him.

After she gets fired and  has a book then she has her epiphany? It certainly seems pretty convenient-her situational outrage is sort of like Trump himself. Since the news of her book has hit, she’s been claiming there’s a tape of Trump using the N word on The Apprentice. Now it’s true, this has been rumored since the campaign. But it’s been questioned wether she really heard the tape herself or just heard about it. And again, this is the same illegitimate ‘President’ and illegitimate ‘man’ she has defended and apologized for years. She even went so far as saying that those who criticized him then had to bow down to him now that he was ‘President.’

I was never a fan of her’s on the shows-I always tended to root against her. Yes, I used to watch the Apprentice from time to time-before Trump got into politics and showed his true colors. Even when she had just left the Russia White House and showed up on Big Brother, I still found that I wasn’t a fan.

But here, you have to give her credit. She was smart enough to realize that everyone would doubt her unless she had tapes. Does she have the tape of Trump using the N word? We will know soon as her book comes out this week.

However, you have to feel a little more inclined to believe her after her interview with Chuck Todd yesterday where she rolled out the tape of John Kelly firing her. That was very smart on her part because now many of those who were willing to dismiss her book as just invention saw her deliver something pretty major. And if this is just her first shot, this could be some major trouble for the Russia White House.

Indeed, CNN argues it’s an alarm bell. 

Omarosa had outdone herself, and that’s hard to do when you are, well, Omarosa. But what she says she did is no laughing matter.

“On Sunday morning, Omarosa Manigault Newman — a former senior aide to President Donald Trump — claims she had recorded a conversation in the White House Situation Room. In an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Manigault Newman, author of a tell-all book about the Trump White House, played a recording of chief of staff John Kelly firing her last January.

“The fact that the recording exists is shocking; that it allegedly happened in the most secure room in the White House — known as a SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility) — would represent a violation of strict internal procedures prohibiting unsecure devices there. The goal of these rules, of course, is to ensure that no external devices can be used by foreign enemies or spy services to listen in or record sensitive information.”

“The goal is to keep America safe.”

“If it happened the way Manigault Newman says it did, then it would appear that, in this White House, the enemy is within. And while, as a former government official in homeland security, I am unforgiving of Omarosa’s deliberate action, no one should be surprised about it. After all, the reality show star — hired by Trump and given entrée to the upper reaches of US government — appears to have “qualified” for her job mainly because of her (until now) loyalty to him.”

“From the beginning, President Trump has flouted safety and security protocols. And in his neglect in enforcing security culture, he has set the tone for the White House. What would deter the “troops” from simply following his lead?”

FN: Though you have to point out that Trump has faced no more consequences for what he’s done to the nation’s security-from all the money the Secret Service wastes following him to Mar-a-Lago every week-to the many ways he flouts security-remember all the furor over Hillary’s server?^[1]

Indeed, remember when Trump claimed Clinton’s email server was a national security threat? In truth in myriad ways, no one has done more to violate good security protocols than the illegitimate ‘President.’ As for tapes, this is the second case we know of where one of his trusted flacks taped him-Michael Cohen and now Omarosa.

But Trump acting betrayed by this is pretty ironic as he suggested he’d taped Comey^[2] and reportedly taped his staff at Trump Organization for years. Live by the sword die by the sword. As for Omarosa, taping conversations is also her own MO; while in the ‘White House’ she’d taped her conversation with reporter April Ryan.

In any case, she delivered the goods in a major way yesterday. The tape of John Kelly firing her was revealing on a number of levels.

“Former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman said Sunday that she has personally heard a tape of President Donald Trump using the N-word during filming for NBC’s “The Apprentice,” a revelation she says “confirmed that he is truly a racist.”

“Newman made the charge during an exclusive interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” days before the release on Tuesday of her new book, “Unhinged: An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House.” In the book, Newman describes hearing about the tape but not hearing it herself. She said Sunday that she personally listened to it after her book had gone to press.”

She added: “But when he talks that way, the way he did on this tape, it confirmed that he is truly a racist.”

Again, as we noted above, it seems pretty late in the game for her to be confirming he’s a racist; she’d heard about the tapes for two years but continued to defend her white supremacist sympathizing boss. Until he unceremoniously had John Kelly fire her.

She does agree though that she was complicit in being his apologist.

“Newman also provided “Meet the Press” with an audio recording she said was made in 2017 when White House chief of staff John Kelly fired her. In it, Kelly argued that there have been “significant integrity issues” that prompted him to fire her. She claimed the recording was made when Kelly took her into the Situation Room, a specially secure room where the president and his top aides address major national security crises, and where personal cell phones are not allowed. Newman also said it was the only meeting she had with Kelly during her time at the White House.”

In the video, the voice Newman claims belongs to Kelly accused her of “some pretty serious integrity violations,” and he said he hopes she can make “this a friendly departure.”

“NBC News and other outlets reported at the time that Newman had been escorted out of the White House after she tried to enter the presidential residence in response to hearing she’d been fired.”

“She framed the newly released audio as proof of her story and that Kelly put her in an uncomfortable situation after “trying to find a reason to let me go.”

Integrity violations? In this Administration? And as Omarosa rightly notes, Kelly had defended Rob Porter and dismissed the allegations against him as a ‘coordinated smear campaign.’

“They take me into the Situation Room, the doors are locked, they tell me I can’t leave and they start to threaten me, put fear in me, to put me under duress,” she said.

“Rob Porter is accused of allegedly abusing his wives,” she said. “And you know what John Kelly said about Rob Porter? He said he was a man of great integrity. And he’s accusing me of integrity violations?”

“Newman said she would love for the White House to release her personnel files. “I’m saying it right now: Release it so that the American people can see that I worked my butt off to make a difference in this country and they were working for ways to frame me.”

Indeed, Trump’s definition of ‘integrity violations’ is even more situational than Omarosa’s definition of a racist.

Then she gets into another very interesting area-non-disclosure agreements.

“She has also claimed the Trump campaign offered her a job in exchange for signing a restrictive non-disclosure agreement to keep her from speaking critically about her time with the campaign and the White House. Newman provided what she said were copies of those agreements to “Meet the Press.”

Indeed, as you can hear on the tapes, Kelly suggests that Omarosa-if she’s not careful-could be in some serious legal jeopardy. He also, interestingly, declared that ‘everyone her works for me not for the President.’

She asserts that she was offered $15 grand a month to stay quiet:

“Omarosa Manigault Newman was offered a $15,000-a-month contract from President Trump’s campaign to stay silent after being fired from her job as a White House aide by Chief of Staff John F. Kelly last December, according to a forthcoming book by Manigault Newman and a document viewed by The Washington Post.”

But she refused, according to the incendiary new book, “Unhinged: An Insider Account of the Trump White House,” which also depicts Trump as unqualified, narcissistic and racist. Excerpts of the book were obtained by The Post.

“After she was fired, Manigault Newman wrote, she received a call from Trump campaign adviser Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, offering her a job and the monthly contract in exchange for her silence.

“A nondisclosure agreement attached to the offer, which was reviewed by The Post, said Manigault Newman could not make any comments about President Trump, Vice President Pence or their families or any comments that could damage the president. It said she would do “diversity outreach,” among other things, for the campaign. “The NDA attached to the email was as harsh and restrictive as any I’d seen in all my years of television,” Manigault Newman writes in the book.”

It’s consistent with the sort of deals Trump has had with many others who have worked for him. For his part, Trump’s body guard, Keith Schiller, is being paid $15,000 per month; ie, a very important witness in the Mueller probe is receiving hush money from the subject of the investigation.

“GOP pollster Frank Luntz, who is named in the book as someone who had allegedly heard Trump use the n-word, wrote Friday on Twitter that the allegation was “flat-out false” and said Manigault Newman made no effort to verify the assertion with him.”

Goody-a contest to find out who’s telling the truth: Frank Luntz or Omarosa?

There’s also Michael Cohen news:

“In early 2017, Manigault Newman says, she walked Michael Cohen, then Trump’s personal attorney, into the Oval Office for a meeting with Trump — and allegedly saw the president chewing up a piece of paper while Cohen was leaving the office. Another White House official confirmed that Manigault Newman brought Cohen into the White House and was later rebuked for it. The two remain in contact, according to people familiar with the relationship.”

“I saw him put a note in his mouth,” she writes in her book. “Since Trump was ever the germaphobe, I was shocked he appeared to be chewing and swallowing the paper. It must have been something very, very sensitive.”

She was rebuked simply for bringing Cohen into the room? No wonder he’s so disgruntled.

She also claims that Sean Spicer is getting paid to praise the ‘President.’ Spicer denies it. 

“Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer says Omarosa Manigault‘s claim that he — as well as other former staffers — are being paid to laud President Donald Trump is just plain bogus.”

“Manigault made the claim during an interview with Chuck Todd on Meet the Press.”

“They were not offering me a real job. They told me I could work from home, if I even wanted to work. They didn’t really care if I showed up,” Manigault claimed. “In fact, there are several former employees from the White House who actually signed this agreement, who are all being paid $15,000 for their silence.”

Todd then asked her if former White House staffers were being “bought off.”

“Absolutely,” Manigault replied.”The campaign, the RNC, and America First, which is why Sean Spicer was describing Donald Trump as a ‘unicorn jumping over rainbows’…Because he signed this same agreement.”

“Spicer, though, denies he is being paid to praise Trump.

“There’s no evidence of anything of the sort,” Spicer told The New York Post when asked about Manigault’s remarks. “What’s equally disappointing to me is not only did Chuck Todd give Omarosa a platform, but he failed to challenge her in the most basic ways.”

Spicer did join Trump’s America First and sign a regular employee agreement but that was after Manigault’s book was written, according to The Post.

Ok so when she said it, it was false, but it’s now true? I don’t know a ‘who’s telling the truth’ between Spicer and anyone else favors anyone else.

I am not being paid to describe Trump as a unicorn jumping over rainbows period! 

I’m sure the fact that he’s not is an alternative fact. 

UPDATE: Lordy there are reportedly hundreds of tapes. It certainly appears that this John Kelly tape is just the tip of the iceberg. Will she now be releasing the tapes regularly on a rolling basis? You can only hope.

UPDATE 2.0: We still have yet to hear of the  alleged N-word tape-though Omarosa did provide tapes of Trump senior staff asserting there is such a tape-she also had one of Lara Trump. But what does the fact we still haven’t heard the tape prove it’s fictional? But if it is, it’s notable that even Trump senior staff believed it existed in 2016. Obviously that it doesn’t exist could be one explanation-remember the efforts Tom Arnold took to acquire it?

OTOH even if the tape doesn’t exist there is so much other irrefutable evidence he is a racist-just the latest confirmation is his despicable send her back chants-apparently 2020 version of lock her up. ^[3]

Overall Omarosa’s promise of hundreds of tapes hasn’t happened. Early on she had some real bombshells but it slowed down and it’s now been 10 months since we’ve heard a peep from her. Was she greatly exaggerating or has she been muzzled by Trump’s lawyers? Or did she reconsider and take the money?