Former Apprentice Star and White House staffer Omarosa Manigault Newman will release a new book entitled Unhinged: An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House. As part of the publicity tour for that new book, she released an audio recording to NBC News of a meeting she had with White House Chief of Staff John Kelly. She says the meeting took place in the White House Situation Room.
Listen below:
Today, the Today Show on NBC played a recording of a phone call that Omarosa received from President Donald Trump she said was the day after being fired. He indicated that he did not know about the firing and appeared to disagree. (NBC News reported that they did not know what was said before or after this excerpt.)
Listen below:
This recording, in the Situation Room, raises a number of questions for me.
- Why was Omarosa hired by the White House to begin with? What were her qualifications?
- Kelly in his conversation with Omarosa said there were some “pretty serious integrity violations,” what were they?
- Did this meeting really take place in the White House Situation Room? I’m not sure we can take what she says at face value.
- If this meeting actually took place in the White House Situation Room, and if so, why? Kelly has a private office or there are numerous other conference rooms he could have met with her in.
- How was she allowed to come into the White House Situation Room with a recording device?
- What are the White House’s legal options to pursue against Omarosa as a deterrence to others doing the same?
- If she recorded this conversation, and apparently numerous others, are there any others doing the same?
- Omarosa bringing an unsecured cell phone into the White House Situation Room is a definite example of an integrity issue and would be a fireable offense, does this not hurt her credibility with the media in any way?