Please welcome
Omarosa Manigault Newman. -♪ ♪
-(cheering and applause) Welcome. (chuckles) (squeaks) Welcome to the show. I got to get all this jelly up
in this chair now. (laughs) You are one of the few people
who I would say -has managed to out-Trump Trump.
-(laughs) You've created a firestorm. You are covering the news. He's tweeting incessantly
about you. Let's go in on the book first before we get
into the recordings. So, Unhinged:
An Insider's Account of the President Trump
White House. -Now, I've read through
the book-- -But before we get into it,
can I apologize to you first? -What are you apologizing for?
-I have to tell the audience that I was actually supposed
to be on the show when I was
in the administration, but the press secretary
canceled it. And so I just want
to apologize to you, -'cause I was looking forward
to it. -Oh. Oh, no. There's-- -You're here now. That's all
that matters. -I'm here now! -Yeah, you're here now.
-(cheering and applause) You're here now. And to be fair to you,
I should warn you, -this is being recorded. Um...
-(laughing) -The...
-(cheering and applause) The book that you wrote is a book of your account from
being inside the White House. -Yes.
-Now, if I had read this book and knew nothing
about the Trump administration, I would say
that all of it is a lie. I would say that all of it
is wildly untrue, just because of the stories
that are so extreme. But because
of what we've experienced and what we've learned
about the White House, I'm reading the book,
going, like, "Uh-huh, uh-huh. And? Uh-huh, uh-huh."
Honestly-- not in a bad way-- but it doesn't seem like there's
anything new in the book. So why-why write it? What did you think
this book would add to the conversation
we have about Donald Trump? When you say
there's nothing new in the book, it's not just
about Donald Trump. -Right. -It also talked
about my childhood. I talked about the difficulty going through
my father's murder, my brother's murder,
and a lot of things, like my family surviving a house
fire that killed my cousin. So those are things that I've
never talked about publicly. So there are actually new things
in the book. Right. New things in the book
about yourself. But Unhinged, I guess,
gives people an insider's account
of the Trump White House. -I mean, that's-that's what
the book talks about. -Yes. And when you came out
with this book, everyone said, "Look, Omarosa,
what are you going to tell us? Nothing new, really." There are a few accounts that the White House
has disputed here. Um, did you expect that
when you wrote the book? Oh, absolutely. Because they lie to the American
people every single day. So it doesn't surprise me that, when they're faced with
the truth, they'll push back. Right. And what's interesting is
the question that immediately springs to mind
when you say that is, you were part of an organization
and a team that lied -to the American people
every day. -Oh, unfortunately. And I regret that,
that I was totally complicit. But I didn't go in thinking
we were gonna lie. In fact, when I sat through
my first briefing with Sean Spicer when he said that this was
the biggest inauguration -in the history ever...
-Right. ...I was sitting there going,
"Well, do I have lying eyes, or is he lying?" And... Because everyone knows
it wasn't the biggest. And so, from the beginning,
it got really, really bizarre, -but I tried to stay focused
on my portfolio... -Right. ...which was helping
the African-American community. -Now, we'll get to that
in a second, but... -Yeah. but what's interesting is,
you talk about in the book how you managed to create
a distinction in your mind between Donald Trump
pre-presidency -and Donald Trump post.
-Mm-hmm. So you genuinely believe
that the Donald Trump you knew from The Apprentice and from
the time you had spent together would someone change once
he moved into The White House? That he would stop
telling white lies or, you know, leaving out truths
or omissions? You genuinely believed that
knowing him? I hoped that he would rise
to the occasion. I mean, to the greatest honor -that any person could have.
-Right. Only 45 people have ever
sat in that office. I thought that he could actually
rise to the occasion of being presidential,
and, boy, was I wrong. I mean, every single day, he dismantles the dignity
of that office. When you were working with him,
you just spoke to the fact that you had what you took
really seriously as a role
in the administration. Everyone talks
about what your role is. What did you believe
your role was? My-my role had two folds. Um, I was director
of communication for the Office
of Public Liaison, which means
that I was a spokesperson for diverse communities. But there was not anyone
appointed to work with
the African-American community or on those issues, and so,
I took that on, as well. They told me
they would appoint someone. I think President Obama had
15 or 16 people -appointed to that office.
-Right. We had no one,
so I was doing double duty in the communications job,
and taking on the issues that were so important
to the black community. And when you look at President
Trump's time in office now, do you feel like
your time made an impact? Oh, it did. I particularly
remember flying to Haiti for the inauguration
of the president there, and the commitments
that we made during the community...
um, during our campaign to help that particular
community that's still rebuilding. And when I went there
and they saw a representative that looked like me,
a person of color, they were so excited,
and they actually believed that this community... that this administration was
gonna help that community. -Right. -When we did
all the work we did for the HBC community, um,
and we brought the students-- 100 HBCU all-stars
to The White House, and to see the look
on the faces of the students-- that made it worthwhile. When we travelled to African-American
historical museums, and I tried to educate him, I knew that if I could just
get him to the truth, then maybe he could accept it,
or maybe it would absorb in. But I thought the work was
incredibly important. He didn't take it
very seriously. So it's interesting
that you say you thought that he would accept the truth.
Which truth? The truth is that we have
a big responsibility to actually fulfill all of the
campaign promises that we made. In fact, I made a long list,
as you'll see in the book, -of all the things
he said he would do. -Mm-hmm. For instance, Chicago. He said he would help to reduce
the violence in Chicago, and as we know, having seen
600 murders over this weekend, that he has done nothing, and he has refused to even
travel to Chicago. We said that we would help
the people of Flint to get clean water,
and as we know, there's still no clean water
there. -Those were the things that...
-Well, I believe... I believe the water is
of an acceptable standard now, but maybe... some people say
that not enough was done. -But what I've read is that...
-If you still have to boil your water, it's not acceptable
in this country. It's not acceptable that there's
still brown water coming out of the spigots,
and we should have done better. We should have done better
by Puerto Rico, and we have not. And there were a lot of things
that he made commitments to that he just did not fulfill. Did you ever feel like
there was a disconnect between what you were trying
to do in the White House and how the African American
community perceived you in the country? Because I don't know if you,
you know, read opinions
about yourself online or see what people
talk about on the news. And it's always selective,
don't get me wrong, but, you know, there are
many people who said, like, "Oh, Omarosa has stopped
representing black people. She's there
representing Omarosa." Did you feel like
there was a disconnect between yourself and
the African American community? Well, first of all, Trevor,
the African American community -is not a monolith.
-True. We don't have just group-think.
We don't all group-think alike. And so there were those
who felt like there should be no African Americans
at the table, but I thought that we shouldn't
have people making decisions about us without us. And so there are
people who felt like, "You shouldn't be there,
walk away," and there were people who said,
"We need a seat at the table, we need someone negotiating
these deals for us." And so yes,
there was this big dichotomy between people's perceptions of
me and what I should be doing, and people rooting for me and people who
were not cheering for me. So, if we take a step back
and we look at this journey that you went on
with the White House, you know? I will say, in your defense, Ivanka has said a similar thing
in that there's many things she wanted Trump to do
and he hasn't done. There's people who've said,
"Trump takes his own course, and he may or may not listen
to his advisors." You were working
in this White House, and you watch a president
who says disparaging things about Mexicans, about Muslims, about NFL players being
sons of bitches, about Africans
from shit-hole countries. As this is unfolding-- -and I know you talk about it
in the book, -Oh, I do. but as this is unfolding, is
there a breaking point for you, or do you feel like you
still have an opportunity to make a change? Well, there were
quite a few breaking points, as you'll see in Unhinged,
and every single time he said something,
at first I thought, "Is he doing this
intentionally?" And then, when I realized
that he was mentally impaired, that he was declining,
then I thought that I... (laughter) (whooping, applause) It would be funny
if it wasn't true. Um, I thought, okay, I'll
find someone to do the work, I'll find someone to replace me,
another African American advisor so that there wouldn't be
a void, and then I'll leave. But as of now,
seven months later, there is still
no African American assistant to the president
advising him on issues related to race diversity
or the black community. It's interesting, though, you worked
with Pastor Darren Scott, -Mm-hmm. -who, um,
held a meeting with Trump and black pastors recently,
and he said that Donald Trump is the most pro-black president of our lifetimes. -(laughter)
-And... -you-you worked with him,
-Mm-hmm. and in some ways
it seemed like you believed that in some way when you were
in the administration, so what do you think has changed
in you leaving? Is there something
that leaving the White House gives you a perspective on,
that, like, would... If he left, would he change
his tune as well, do you think? Well, first of all,
I can't speak for Pastor Scott, but I can say
that it's very hard to say that you are
a pro-black president when you lock your only
assistant to the president in the Situation Room
for two hours, which General John Kelly,
who makes threats that says, "Things can get ugly for you, and there'll be damage
to your reputation." It goes completely against
the grain that you are pro-black when you
would treat somebody who worked so hard for this
administration that way. Let's talk about that. The recordings have been
an interesting twist -and conversation
in and around this book. -Yes. And you've said something that has really stuck with me
and that was, had you not made the recordings,
nobody would believe you. -Would you have believed me?
-No, I wouldn't have. I wouldn't have believed you,
genuinely, because I don't think
I believe many of the people that come out of
the White House because you don't know
what to believe when you've been gaslighted
to a point -you don't know what
the truth is. -Right. And so you made these
recordings. But I would like to understand-- before we get into
the recordings themselves and how you made them-- why did you feel you needed
to make the recordings when you started making them? Well, I have to be very careful
because, as of today, Donald Trump has decided
to sue me or to bring litigation
against me to silence me and to not allow me
to tell my story, so I will answer your question, but I don't want you to think
I'm coy. I just have a whole host of
attorneys who are telling me -to not give Trump
-Right. Understandably. the ammunition. But I will say, um, as you said, this White House has a
credibility issue. If I would have told you that
General Kelly threatened me with court martial, you would
look at me and go, "That's just another lie that
the White House has told." I knew that I had
to cover my back and document what I saw as an opportunity
to kind of blow the whistle on a lot of the corruption
going on in the White House. And I knew that I needed
to document that corruption, otherwise people would not
take it seriously. I've also noticed that you are
not releasing all the recordings at once. Like, you're releasing
all the singles, and we're waiting for the album. (laughter) So is there a strategy
behind this? Because it feels like, to me, you're saying something on TV, the Trump administration
contradicts you, and then you release a tape
that shows them to be lying, and then you do
the same thing over. Is that your long-term
game plan? No. I'll be honest, when, um,
Katrina Pierson came out and made that long statement
that she had never had any conversations related
to the "n" word tape, she never remembered talking
to me, none of that happened, in fact, she said I was writing
a script for a movie, I was sitting back going,
really. And I-I never intended to, um,
to share that. I didn't even remember that
I really had it, but when she was just so
vehement that it never happened, I was like, it never happened?
Not one conversation? And she went on and on,
and so I did. I decided to share it
to expose her, Lynne Patton, Jason Miller
and the Trump campaign. Because there was a lot of talk
about this "n" word tape that so many people
are pursuing, and that, you know,
folks refuse to release. And so, yes, I shared it,
but I'm not trolling them. I just want them to know that everything that you see
in Unhinged, that's quoted, can be verified as documented
and corroborated. Do you ever worry
about yourself? I mean, it's a very-- -genuinely, this is a...
-(laughter) this is an interesting position
to be in, um, where you have recordings
from inside the White House, the Situation Room, etcetera, nobody knows what conversations
you have recorded. Is there even a little piece
of you that's worried about
your safety? Trevor, I would say this: If you see me in a fight
with a bear, pray for the bear. -(cheering and applause)
-(Noah laughs) The, um, the recordings
that you have... are extremely,
extremely high-quality. And I know that you don't want
to tell anyone how you recorded
these conversations, but would you consider
endorsing the product... (laughter) ...so that women out there
in the workplace who want to record things... 'Cause, like, these are some
of the best recordings we've ever heard, like, ever. Did you practice,
or was this just...? You know I can't comment
on the tapes. (laughter) Before I let you go, um... let's talk about the issue
of racism and Donald Trump. In the book, you say when
you first met with Donald Trump and you worked with him,
you believed that he was racial and he was someone who,
I guess, dealt in race, -but you didn't think
that he was racist. -Yeah. When he brought up
Obama's birth certificate and claimed that he was a secret
Muslim from Kenya, etcetera, did that not... did that not say to you
that this man... was someone who harbored
racist views? Oh, yeah,
and I talk about in Unhinged when I confront him
about the birther issue. The first thing he said is that
Hillary Clinton and her campaign actually started
the birther issue, and then he said,
"It's just politics, and I'm just, you know, doing
this for political reasons." And so, unlike most of America,
I had a chance to take him to task
on a lot of these issues. And I had a blind spot
when it came to Donald Trump. As I explained to you,
I met him back in 2003 when I was a young,
up-and-coming businesswoman. I wanted to lead one
of his companies, and, you know, he inspired me.
I wanted to be a billionaire. I grew up
in the Westlake projects, and I wanted to be wealthy, and that's who I thought
I could aspire to be. But boy, has he been
a great disappointment. And because I did have
this blind spot and I was blindly loyal, and I look like the biggest
dummy following this person because I didn't have
that same perspective. And sometimes
you have to step back in order to get a clear view, and I recognized that I was
going down the wrong path -with Trump.
-Right. Now you're in a position
where... like a TV show on CBS, you are the bad guy
who's come to the other side and says,
"Here's the inside information." -So in the... -(laughs)
Wait. Wait, wait, wait. I'm the... Wait,
I'm the bad guy with the...? Yeah, you know,
like in those TV shows. Like, the bad guy's like,
"Oh, I'm not working for them anymore.
I'll help the FBI." -Um, so...
-(laughter) -(cheering and applause)
-So, I wanted to talk about... There's something
in the epilogue that I found interesting
because there are things we cannot deny
about what you said. So, for instance,
just a few things, like, um... Penn tweeted today-- another former Celebrity
Apprentice contestant-- and he came out, and he said, "Actually,
I have heard Donald Trump "saying disparaging comments,
racially insensitive comments during the taping
of The Apprentice." Did you feel that
that in some way vindicates you? Well, I think it does, because I know
that there are others who experienced that with him. And I'm glad
that Penn is speaking up because I was kind of
like that lone person, that lone voice,
and now he is kind of validating -what I've said.
-Right. And-and this is interesting. When you-you... In the epilogue, you give everyone
a piece of advice, and you talk
about how the president is... putting us in a critical time
in history. And what you say is
he thrives on the conflict. -He likes the insults.
-Mm-hmm. He loves fighting
and mobilizing his base. -Yes.
-So, what is the one insight you can give us into Trump
that isn't a scoop but rather something
in helping us understand somebody you've known
for 15 years? So, if you were going up
against Donald Trump-- as you are, but not really-- what would you suggest
to people then? There's one way
to shut Donald Trump down, and that is just don't give him
the oxygen. And the oxygen comes
from the clicks, the likes, the shock, the discussions. Like when he attacked
LeBron James and everybody was just,
"Oh, my God." Donald Trump enjoyed
every moment of that. He enjoyed every single person
that was shocked by his abrasiveness, his attack on this
African American male athlete, which is his favorite,
go-to thing. He loved it,
and he thrived off of it. If you ignore him,
then you starve him of the thing
that he loves the most, and that is controversy
and attention. -Thank you so much for being
on the show. -Thank you, Trevor. (cheering and applause) Unhinged is available now. Omarosa Manigault-Newman,
everybody.
Well-spoken and full of shit.
It’s weird how quickly you can be a pariah one week and a media darling the next as long as you change your opinions to fit the narrative.