SANDERS: I can’t guarantee anything, but I can tell you that the president addressed this question directly. I can tell you that I’ve never heard it. I can also tell you that if myself or the people that are in this building serving this country every single day doing our very best to serve our 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. This is a president who is fighting for all Americans, who is putting policies in place that help all Americans — particularly African Americans. Just look at the economy alone. This president, since he’s been in office, in the year and a half since he’s been here, has created 700,000 new jobs for African Americans. That’s 700,000 African Americans that are working now that weren’t working when this president took place. When President Obama left, after eight years in office — eight years in office — he had only created 195,000 jobs for African Americans. President Trump in his first year and a half has already tripled what President Obama did in eight years. Not only did he do that for African Americans, but for Hispanics; 1.7 million more Hispanics are working now. This is a president who cares about all Americans, who is committed to helping them, and is putting policies in place that actually do that. Kevin?<doc-sep>The request didn’t seem all that difficult: Could President Donald Trump’s spokeswoman say that he didn’t use the N word on tape? Yet time after time during Tuesday’s briefing, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders parried the question, refusing to give a simple “yes” or “no.” Rather than answer the question herself, she repeatedly directed reporters to the president’s tweet from Monday, in which he said that the Apprentice producer Mark Burnett “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.” Here’s the exchange: Reporter: Sarah, have you asked the president if he ever used the N word? Sanders: The president addressed that question directly via Twitter. I’d refer you back to him. And I can certainly say I’ve never heard him use that term or anything similar. Reporter: You asked him directly? Sanders: I didn’t have to, because he addressed it to the American people all at one time. Reporter: Why haven’t you asked him directly? Sanders: The president answered that question directly on Twitter today. Reporter: Can you stand at the podium and guarantee the American people that they’ll never hear Donald Trump utter the N word in any context? Sanders: I can’t guarantee anything, but I can tell you that the president addressed this question directly. I can tell you that I’ve never heard it. Sanders’s unwillingness to state straightforwardly that no tape exists is striking. The existence of such a tape has been rumored since before the 2016 election, producing fevered searches by journalists and even the actor Tom Arnold. On the one hand, given Trump’s repeated race-baiting comments, it’s not impossible to imagine him using the word. On the other, one would expect such a tape, if real, to have emerged by now. Omarosa Manigault-Newman’s new book has revitalized the rumors. In her book, out Tuesday, the former White House aide says she heard discussions about a tape. During her publicity tour, she claimed that she had actually heard the tape itself, after her book went to press. On Monday night, she released a recording in which Trump campaign staffers discuss something embarrassing the president had said.<doc-sep>WASHINGTON — White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders blamed the media for elevating Omarosa Manigault Newman during her book tour, and suggested that it forced President Trump to respond. On Tuesday, Trump called Manigault Newman a “dog,” as she was in the midst of a publicity tour for the book. She has also claimed that she heard a recording of Trump using the “n-word,” something that he denies. At the press briefing, Sanders said that the “media has done more to divide this country, certainly far more than the president ever has.” She also said his insults directed at Manigault Newman were not racially motivated. She added that the president “has probably got a lot more nasty things out there about some other people” who were not African-Americans. She also noted that Bill and Hillary Clinton attended Trump’s wedding, and Democrats “begged” him for campaign contributions. Asked about Trump’s tweets about Manigault Newman and calling her a “dog,” Sanders said the president was “voicing his frustration with the fact that this person has shown a complete lack of integrity, particularly by the actions following her time here at the White House.” “The president is an equal opportunity person that calls things like he sees it and always fights fire with fire,” she said. She said Trump hired Manigault Newman because he “wanted to give her a chance.” She could not guarantee that there is no tape of Trump using the “n-word,” but that she never heard it. “I can’t guarantee anything but I can tell you that the president addressed it directly,” she said, referring to his tweet on Monday. “I don’t have that word in my vocabulary, and never have. She made it up,” Trump wrote.<doc-sep>WASHINGTON — White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Tuesday that she could not "guarantee" that there are no recordings of President Donald Trump using the N-word. "I’ve never heard him use that term or anything similar," Sanders said in response to a series of questions from NBC's Kristen Welker about whether he's ever used the racial slur. Asked if she could promise that Americans would never hear him say it on a recording, she declined. "I can’t guarantee anything, but I can tell you the president addressed this question directly," she said, though she acknowledged that she had never asked him the question herself. The back-and-forth at Tuesday's White House briefing followed the publication of a book from former Trump aide Omarosa Manigault Newman, who says she was fired by chief of staff John Kelly because she was investigating rumors that Trump had used the word during tapings of "The Apprentice," his long-running NBC reality show. On Sunday, Manigualt Newman told NBC's Chuck Todd that she has since heard a recording of Trump saying it. On Monday, the president 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 Trump and his aides have continued to wage a rhetorical war on Manigualt Newman and her book, "Unhinged: An Insider's Account of the Trump White House." On Tuesday morning, the president called Manigault Newman a "dog" on Twitter, which sparked another round of accusations that he employs racist language. 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 said Trump is an "equal opportunity" denigrator who "fights fire with fire." "This has absolutely nothing to do with race and everything to do with the president calling out someone’s lack of integrity," she said. "The president has said similar things about a number of individuals, certainly, that are not African-American or any other minority." Sanders said that she and other White House aides would quit their jobs "if at any point we felt that the president was who some of his critics claim him to be" and that he wouldn't have been able to form close relationships with other luminaries in the business and political worlds, including "Bill and Hillary Clinton," if he was. "They attended his wedding," she said of Trump's former rival, whom he calls "Crooked Hillary," and her husband, the former president. During the press briefing, Sanders said there was nothing unusual about the Trump administration's policy of asking staffers to sign nondisclosure agreements. "Other White Houses have had people sign NDAs. It's standard," she said. Officials who have worked in prior administrations said Tuesday that that claim was not true. Chris Lu, a former Obama White House cabinet secretary, told NBC News that nondisclosure agreements are not standard in presidential administrations and that no one in the Obama White House signed such an agreement. Lu says there are restrictions against releasing highly classified, sensitive information — but that falls under a security clearance, not an NDA. Ari Fleischer, a White House press secretary under President George W. Bush, told The Washington Post that "Bush aides weren’t asked to sign such agreements unless they saw highly classified, sensitive information." Sanders, when asked, would not say Tuesday whether she herself had signed a nondisclosure agreement.<doc-sep>
Sanders ‘can’t guarantee’ Americans will never hear Trump use racial slur White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Tuesday she had not heard President Donald Trump utter a racial slur, although she could not guarantee that Trump never used a derogatory term for African-Americans. Omarosa Manigault Newman, a former presidential adviser, is accusing Trump of using the N-word before he was elected. In her new memoir about her time in the White House, Manigault Newman claims there is a recording of Trump using the slur during a taping of his reality television show “The Apprentice.” Sanders was pressed by reporters on the accusation during a White House press briefing on Tuesday afternoon. Although she called Manigault Newman’s allegations “salacious” and “ridiculous,” Sanders did not guarantee that Americans would never hear Trump saying the N-word. “I can’t guarantee anything,” Sanders said. “I can tell you that I’ve never heard it.” Sanders said she had not asked Trump directly whether he had used the racial slur. “I didn‘t have to because he addressed it to the American people all at one time,“ Sanders said, referring to Trump’s denial on Twitter the night before. Earlier in the day, Manigault Newman released the latest tape she secretly recorded during her time working under Trump. She says the tape shows campaign staffers discussing how to spin Trump’s use of a racial slur. Both staffers who were taped, Katrina Pierson and Lynn Patton, deny the existence of such a tape. Rumors about the alleged “N-word tape” first circulated during the 2016 campaign. Trump quickly fired back on Twitter after the tape aired Tuesday morning, calling Manigault Newman a “dog.“ Reporters repeatedly questioned Sanders on that characterization, asking whether the comment had racial undertones. “Look, the president has said this has absolutely nothing to do with race and everything to do with the president calling out someone‘s lack of integrity,“ Sanders said. “He has made a number of comments about plenty of people, and to try to single that out to one group is frankly silly because I think if you did a comparison, he‘s probably got a lot more nasty things out there about some other people.“ Sanders was also asked whether she thought the insults Trump slung at Manigault Newman on Tuesday were appropriate. “The president is somebody who is always going to fight fire with fire,“ Sanders said.