During a press briefing on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said she could not “guarantee” that there isn’t a recording of President Donald Trump using the n-word.
“I can’t guarantee anything,” Sanders said when asked if such a recording existed. “I can tell you the president addressed this question directly. I can tell you I have never heard it. I can tell you if myself or the people in this building serving this country every single day doing our very best to help people all across this country and make it better, if at any point we felt that the president was who some of his critics claim him to be, we certainly wouldn’t be here.”
“But I can tell you the president addressed this question directly,” Sanders added, referring reporters to the president’s own tweets where he claims that no such word is in his vocabulary.
On Monday, Trump took to Twitter to deny the existence of such a tape.
.@MarkBurnettTV called to say that there are NO TAPES of the Apprentice where I used such a terrible and disgusting word as attributed by Wacky and Deranged Omarosa. I don’t have that word in my vocabulary, and never have. She made it up. Look at her MANY recent quotes saying….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2018
….such wonderful and powerful things about me – a true Champion of Civil Rights – until she got fired. Omarosa had Zero credibility with the Media (they didn’t want interviews) when she worked in the White House. Now that she says bad about me, they will talk to her. Fake News!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2018
The recent exchange of words followed the release of Manigault Newman’s book. Manigault Newman said she was fired by Chief of Staff John Kelly because she was investigating rumors that Trump had used the n-word during a taping of his former NBC show “The Apprentice,” according to NBC News. She told NBC’s Chuck Todd on Sunday she has since heard a recording of Trump saying the word.
On Tuesday, Trump fired off another tweet aimed at Manigault Newman, calling the former White House aide a “dog.”
“When you give a crazed, crying lowlife a break, and give her a job at the White House, I guess it just didn’t work out. Good work by General Kelly for quickly firing that dog!” Trump tweeted.
When you give a crazed, crying lowlife a break, and give her a job at the White House, I guess it just didn’t work out. Good work by General Kelly for quickly firing that dog!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2018
Sanders disputed that Trump has a pattern of attacking African-Americans, calling him an “equal opportunity” denigrator.
“This has absolutely nothing to do with race and everything to do with the president calling out someone’s lack of integrity… the fact is the president’s an equal opportunity person that calls things like he sees it. He always fights fire with fire and he doesn’t hold back,” Sanders said, defending Trump for “voicing his frustration” with Omarosa Manigault Newman.
When ABC News’ Jonathan Karl asked why Trump would employ an individual who he now describes in such terms, Sanders described Trump’s hiring of Manigault Newman as generous.
“The president wanted to give her a chance,” Sanders said. “And he made clear when General Kelly came on and he voiced concerns that this individual didn’t have the best interests of the White House and the president and the country at heart, the president said do what you can to get along. If you can’t, he gave him full authority to carry out the decision to let her go.”
Manigault Newman responded to Trump’s name-calling on MSNBC on Tuesday, saying, “If he says that publicly, what would he say privately? He has no respect of women and African-American women and having the chief of staff lock me up for two and a half hours to harass me and tell me that things can be ugly for me and there is damage for my reputation. He is unfit to be in this office and to be serving as the president of the United States.”
According to ABC News, Manigault Newman also released another recording on Tuesday which she says is a recording of a conference call where several Trump campaign aides discussed how they would handle the fallout if such a tape were to surface.
Manigault Newman said on CBS “This Morning” that the recording contradicted the recent statements by former Trump campaign spokesperson Katrina Pierson and former campaign aide Lynne Patton, who had disputed Manigault Newman’s descriptions of the call.
Pierson can be heard saying in the audio that she wanted more information so she could figure out they could “maybe try to figure a way to spin it.”
In the conversation, Patton recalled how she asked Trump if the audio existed, and Trump denied it.
Pierson later said on the recording: “He said it [the N-word]. No, he said it. He’s embarrassed.”
Patton and Pierson released a joint statement on Tuesday, arguing the audio recording does not contradict their previous statements.
No one ever denied we had multiple conversations re: the Apprentice tape. To the contrary my interview w/@HuffPost proves @OMAROSA was obsessed & discussed it constantly. What we refuted is having a call that Luntz CONFIRMED Trump said it. Trump himself confirms to us he didn’t pic.twitter.com/EVtLo3QgBK
— ?? Lynne Patton (@LynnePatton) August 14, 2018