As you know, the man in the photograph is Donald J. Trump. It's a little more than twenty-one months since Trump was elected president of the United States, and it's time now for you to come forward with evidence you gathered while being undercover during the Trump campaign and as an assistant to the president at The White House.
Your mission, Omarosa, as your assignment continued, was to find the evidence - even by tape recording Trump and others in the administration - and to prove that Trump is not only incompetent to serve as president, but to validate through various means that he should be forced to resign - or else be impeached and removed from office - because of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and treason. What you have discovered must now be brought in to the limelight. As always, if you or any of your IM Force are caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This tape will self-destruct in five seconds. Good luck Omarosa."
Under normal circumstances, I would strongly oppose any White House aide who secretly records the president or others in his administration. But the avalanche of lies...the lack of transparency...and the clandestine methods that have undoubtedly been utilized...by Donald Trump and many of his senior staff...lead me to applaud Manigault Newman for her actions.
Somebody needed to expose Trump and this White House for what it really is...a cesspool of corruption and a burrow of bigotry.
As to why she recorded conversations in The White House - including one in The Situation Room, in December 2017, when she was fired by the chief of staff, retired United States Marine Corps General John Kelly - Manigault Newman told Chuck Todd on the Sunday, August 12th, 2018 broadcast of NBC's Meet The Press..."I protected myself because this is a White House where everybody lies; the president lies to the American people, (press secretary) Sarah Huckabee (Sanders) stands in front of the country and lies every single day. You have to have your own back or else you'll look back and you'll have seventeen knives in your back." Manigault Newman provided Meet The Press with the tape of Kelly dismissing her from The White House while they spoke in "The SitRoom."
On the Monday, August 13th, 2018 edition of Today on NBC, Manigault Newman released a recording of a conversation where Donald Trump appears to be shocked that she was leaving The White House. "Nobody even told me about it. You know they run a big operation, but I didn't know it. I didn't know that. G-ddamn it. I don't love you leaving at all."
Manigault Newman expressed to Savannah Guthrie..."General Kelly, John Kelly is running this White House and Donald Trump has no clue what's going on. He's being puppetted...and that's very dangerous for this nation." But as I've written in the past, when it comes to the Trump campaign, the Trump administration, or The Trump Organization (before Trump occupied The Oval Office)...nothing is done in Trump world without Donald Trump's approval. It's why - without question - he had to know about the June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower with Donald Trump, Jr., Jared Kushner and the Russians...and it's why Trump, I think, not only was aware that General Kelly was giving the ax to Manigault Newman, but that Trump probably gave Kelly the order to do so. Remember...as a reality television star himself... Donald Trump is an actor. And his recorded conversation with Manigault Newman was simply a performance. To be fair, though...she too - as a celebrity from reality TV - also has a talent for acting. But it's Manigault Newman who has the tapes.
The White House Situation Room is generally perceived to be one of the highest security locations in the country, so recording devices are expressly forbidden. In actuality, The SitRoom is a large complex of 55-hundred square feet made up of many rooms. When asked, though, how she recorded Kelly inside what is supposed to be a secure area, Manigault Newman wouldn't divulge her cloak and dagger operation except to say..."I'll just leave that to your imagination."
The Washington Post reports that "dozens of White House aides have signed NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) in exchange for working with Trump, who has long relied on such agreements in his business career, according to current and former administration employees." Trump tweeted on August 13th that Manigault Newman "already has a fully signed Non-Disclosure Agreement." But the former director of communications for The White House office of public liaison says she never signed such a document. That being said...whether Manigault Newman did or did not execute the aforementioned paperwork, most lawyers believe that NDAs are not legally enforceable for public personnel. Furthermore, it's historically uncommon for NDAs to have been used by past U.S. presidents.
The above brings us back to that exclusive interview on Meet The Press, when Manigault Newman revealed that she has personally heard a recording of Trump using the N-word during a taping of an episode of NBC's The Apprentice...that Trump hosted...and which - according to Manigault Newman - "confirmed that he is truly a racist." However, in her new book, Unhinged: An Insider's Account of the Trump White House, she writes of only hearing about the tape. But Manigault Newman told Chuck Todd that after her book was published she has had an opportunity to actually listen to the recording.
For more than three years, I have labeled Trump a racist. On day one of his campaign he identified Mexicans as "rapists" and people who "bring drugs" in to the United States. His speech on June 16th, 2015 also accused Mexicans plus others from "all over South and Latin America" for "bringing crime" to our country.
A year later, on June 2nd, 2016, Trump verbally attacked a federal judge who was presiding over litigation where plaintiffs had filed lawsuits against Trump University. U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel - who is an American citizen by birth, having been born in Indiana - received Trump's racist wrath when he claimed Curiel may be biased because of his Latino background. Trump told The Wall Street Journal that Curiel sitting on the bench in these cases was "an absolute conflict" given that he is "of Mexican heritage" and because of Trump's pledge to "build a wall" on America's southern border, so that too is "an inherent conflict of interest."
But Trump insists "I'm not a racist. I am the least racist person." Those words were his defense to a January 2018 report by The Washington Post that alleged Trump referred to Haiti and African nations as "shithole countries." In June 2017, Trump despicably noted that 15-thousand immigrants from Haiti "all have AIDS" and that 40-thousand Nigerians - after seeing the U.S. - would never "go back to their huts" in Africa.
At at June 2016 rally in Redding, California, Trump focused on an individual in the crowd and pointed to that supporter...who happened to be black..."Look at my African-American over here. Look at him." I suppose Trump never heard of the Emancipation Proclamation. Although it's been more than a century-and-a-half since President Abraham Lincoln issued the order to free the slaves in ten states, Trump - two years ago - described a black man as "my African-American." In addition, Trump has been known to criticize African-Americans for being "ungrateful."
Furthermore, Trump has denigrated Native Americans...and he has mocked U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren - Democrat of Massachusetts - by nicknaming her "Pocahontas." Warren says her family ancestry includes both the Cherokee and Delaware tribes.
In December 2015, Trump called for "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States."
In August 2017, following the protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, Trump was disgraceful when he refused to denounce the Ku Klux Klan, the neo-Nazis, and the white supremacists whose behavior contributed to a woman being killed during the demonstration. "I think there's blame on both sides...but you also had people that were very fine people on both sides."
Apparently an act of anti-Semitism didn't matter to Trump during the campaign even though his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is Jewish...Trump's daughter, Ivanka Trump, converted to Judaism...and therefore three of "The Donald's" grandchildren are Jewish. But in July 2016, Trump tweeted an image that featured Hillary Clinton with a Star of David...a pile of one-hundred-dollar bills...and a caption that read... "Most Corrupt Candidate Ever!" Trump added to the tweet..."Crooked Hillary -- Makes History!" The tweet and the accompanying graphic painted a portrait of Jews as money-grubbers, which suggests a stereotypical anti-Semitic view of Jewish people. The Trump campaign, however, claimed the artwork was not to depict a Star of David, but a six-pointed sheriff's badge. Of course. And I can fly through the air like Superman. (Full disclosure...I am Jewish).
Finally, let us not forget that for many years, Trump led the so-called "birther movement" by reiterating his charge that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States, but in Kenya. That was nothing but a racist lie about America's first black president.
This column only scratches the surface by sharing a sampling of Donald Trump's racist behavior. There are numerous other examples indicating his bigotry.
It's beyond embarrassing to the United States that the president's use of language is foulmouthed and downright nasty. But that's nothing new. Despite his vile and vulgar verbiage, enough Americans still voted for him.
As for his incivility towards Manigault Newman, Trump - on August 13th - tweeted that "Wacky Omarosa" is "a lowlife"...that she is "vicious but not smart"... and she's "a loser" who "people in The White House hated." But the "insulter-in-chief" remained in obnoxious character on Tuesday, August 14th when he added a cherry to the top of his mud-slinging sundae by defining Manigault Newman as a "dog." "Good work by General Kelly for quickly firing that dog!" And Trump is adamant that he is not a racist? He is a venomous racist and a cruel, heartless misogynist.
Omarosa Manigault Newman first met and became acquainted with Donald Trump in 2004 when she was a contestant on the first season of The Apprentice. But Trump's fourteen-year association with a woman who he describes as a "lowlife" may be the person who completely ruins his life. And Manigault Newman might just be the answer to Democrats' prayers. In an August 13th interview with Chris Matthews on his MSNBC program, Hardball...Manigault Newman declared she has "plenty" of tapes. So to borrow a phrase from James Comey..."Lordy, I hope there are tapes." And I'm betting that special counsel Robert Mueller is going to want to hear all of them. Manigault Newman told Chris Matthews..."If his (Mueller's) office calls again... anything they want I'll share. Anything that they want, I'll certainly cooperate." But the question remains...what previous communication has Manigault Newman had with Mueller? She has not yet elaborated. Perhaps she has already provided some of her tapes to Mueller...and just maybe...Omarosa Manigault Newman will be the "John Dean" of this investigation. As Dean - a senior adviser to Richard Nixon - helped to take down the 37th president after Watergate...it could be Omarosa Manigault Newman who has the necessary ammunition to help unseat the 45th president.
One would think that The White House - and especially The Situation Room - are totally secure and protected from secret means of surveillance. But obviously - with the recordings we have heard this week - we can no longer make that assumption.
But it's going to take Democrats...Independents...and Republicans with a backbone...to do it. If Americans nationwide don't come together in a courageous effort...America as we know it...as we knew it...may likely become a thing of the past...forever.
And that's The Controversy for today.
I'm Gary B. Duglin.
"We'll talk again."
The Controversy is a publication of GBD Productions. Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Controversy is Gary B. Duglin.
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Photo credits: NBC News/Meet The Press (Omarosa Manigault Newman), Getty Images and The Hill (Donald Trump) and LiPo Ching/Bay Area News Group (Congressman Eric Swalwell)
Copyright 2018 Gary B. Duglin and TheControversy.net. All Rights Reserved. This column may be freely shared among individuals, but it may not be reprinted or republished in any medium without the express written consent of Gary B. Duglin. Interested parties may contact The Controversy. Broadcast, cable, satellite, and other forms of media are welcome to quote Gary B. Duglin by crediting him and The Controversy.
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