The Omarosa Manigault Newman press tour continued Tuesday ahead of the release of her book, "Unhinged," a tell-all account of her time in the White House, and she ended the day at "The Daily Show" with Trevor Noah. The sit-down Tuesday night marked her first with a late-night host since the former White House aide became the Donald Trump administration's number one enemy — this week, at least.
"You are one of the few people who I would say has managed to out-Trump Trump," Noah said. "You created a firestorm, you are covering the news. He's tweeting incessantly about you."
The late-night host then dived into the book and he said, if he had no knowledge of Trump or his administration, it would seem to him "wildly untrue just because of the stories that are so extreme." But given what the public does know now, Noah added, "it doesn’t seem like there’s anything new in the book, so why write it? What did you think this would add to the conversation about Donald Trump?"
Omarosa fired back, saying that there is a lot of new information that she divulges about her family, her upbringing, some trauma and death in her life. The former reality star continued to be on the defense, appearing unfazed by the White House's disputes of accounts in her book. "They lie to the American people every single day," she said of the Trump administration, "so it doesn’t surprise me that when they’re faced with the truth, they’ll push back."
"The question that immediately springs to mind when you say that," Noah replied, "is you were a part of an organization, a team that lied to the American people everyday."
Omarosa said she "regrets" her participation and admits that she was "totally complicit," adding that that wasn't her intention going in. "I'd hoped that he'd rise to the occasion," Omarosa said of Trump. "And boy was I wrong. I mean every single day he dismantles the dignity of that office."
Omarosa noted the many promises Trump has made to help marginalized communities that he has failed to follow through on, from the people in Chicago to Puerto Rico to Flint.
And of the many disparaging comments that Trump has made to and about people of color, whether his targets have been Mexicans, Muslims or NFL players, Omarosa said, "There were quite a few breaking points" for her. "Every single time he said something, first I thought, 'Is he doing this intentionally?' And then when I realized that he was mentally impaired, that he was declining," she continued, as the audience laughed and cheered. "It would be funny if it wasn’t true."
Omarosa added that she really wanted to find an African-American adviser to replace her, so she could walk away, "but as of now, seven months later, there's no African-American assistant to the president, advising him on issues relating to race, diversity or the black community." It's a fact that Kellyanne Conway revealed over the weekend, when she struggled to name a single black White House staffer.
When Noah asked why she felt she needed to make the recordings, Omarosa responded that she had to be "careful," given pending legal action that the Trump administration has filed against her, but "this White House has a credibility issue," she said. "I knew that I had to cover my back and document what I saw as an opportunity to blow the whistle on a lot of the corruption I saw going on in the White House."
As the interview came to an end, the former White House aide admitted that she had a "blind spot" when it came to Trump’s racism. But here was someone she has known for 15 years and who inspired her to enter business. "Boy has he been a great disappointment," she added. "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 recognize that I was going down the wrong path with Trump."
Shares