Skip to content
Politics
Link copied to clipboard

Omarosa says she has more tapes as Trump lashes out: ‘Doesn’t know how to control himself’

"She begged me for a job, tears in her eyes, I said Ok."

President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting on African American History Month on Feb. 1, 2017 beside former White House staffer Omarosa Manigault Newman.
President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting on African American History Month on Feb. 1, 2017 beside former White House staffer Omarosa Manigault Newman.Read moreEvan Vucci / AP Photo

President Trump publicly lashed out at former White House staffer Omarosa Manigault Newman Monday morning, just hours after she released a recording of a private conversation that took place between the two after she was fired from her job in his administration.

"She begged me for a job, tears in her eyes, I said Ok," Trump wrote on Twitter in a series of tweets. "People in the White House hated her. She was vicious," Trump also referred to Manigault Newman as a "lowlife," admitting that the language he used to attack his former staffer was "not presidential."

During an appearance on MSNBC late Monday morning, Manigault Newman said it was "sad" that Trump would spend time on Twitter insulting her intelligence, adding the president "doesn't know how to control himself." She also claimed she had more tapes to back up the claims in her book, but was waiting to release them.

"They've been threatening legal action, they're trying to figure out how to stop me, they're trying to penalize me because I would not accept the $15,000 a month deal that they offered me for the fake job on the Trump campaign," Manigault Newman said. "I'm expecting that they're going to retaliate. And so I'm just going to stand back and wait."

Later Monday afternoon, Trump also appeared to confirm comments made by White House special counselor Kellyanne Conway over the weekend that Manigault Newman signed a non-disclosure agreement during her time in the administration. Ben Wizner, director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, told USA Today back in March that "public employees can't be gagged by private agreements" and claimed they are "unconstitutional and unenforceable."

On the Today show Monday morning, Manigault Newman released a recording of a private phone call she had with Trump after her firing. In the recording, the president appears surprised that the former Apprentice star had been forced out. It's unclear exactly when the call took place, and what the two may have discussed before and after the audio recording.

"Omarosa, what's going on? "I just saw on the news that you're thinking about leaving. What happened?" Trump can be heard asking Manigault Newman, who at that point had already been fired by White House chief of staff John Kelly. "Nobody even told me about it. You know, they run a big operation but I didn't know it. I didn't know that."

During an appearance on Fox News Monday morning, White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley disputed the idea that Trump didn't know about Manigault Newman's dismissal, but avoided addressing why the president seemed to be unaware of her firing.

"Listen, the president makes the decisions in this White House. I'm not going to get into the ticktock who knew what and when," Gidley told the hosts of Fox & Friends. "The president trusted her and gave his support for her, brought her into the White House, to a prominent position, and she's abused that privilege."

It was the second tape made public by Manigault Newman ahead of the release of her book, Unhinged: An Insider's Account of the Trump White House. The former White House staffer also released a recording of the December 2017 moment in which Kelly fired her. The dismissal occurred in the White House Situation Room, where electronic devices are barred.

"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," Kelly is heard saying in the recording. "And then you can go on without any type of difficulty in the future, relative to your reputation."

"The very idea a staff member would sneak a recording device into the White House Situation Room shows a blatant disregard for our national security – and then to brag about it on national television further proves the lack of character and integrity of this disgruntled former White House employee," Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

Manigault Newman told NBC Meet the Press host Chuck Todd on Sunday that she considered Kelly's words a threat.

"I had to protect myself and I had no regret about it," Manigault Newman said of making the recordings.