While promoting her book "Unhinged," Omarosa Manigault Newman sat down with Trevor Noah Tuesday night to discuss President Trump and the administration. During the interview, the late night host welcomed the former White House aide to the show, describing her as "one of the few people I would say has managed to out-Trump Trump." Noah later added, taking a jab at her secret recordings, "And to be fair to you, I should warn you, this is being recorded." Noah then honed in on the recordings, asking Manigault Newman why she started making them when she did. "I knew that I had to cover my back and document what I saw as an opportunity to kind of blow the whistle on a lot of the corruption going on in the White House," she said. "And I knew that I needed to document that corruption. Otherwise, people would not take it seriously." Noah then noted humorously, "I've also noticed that you are not releasing all of the recordings at once. Like, you're releasing all the singles and we're waiting on the album." "I decided to share (the recording) to expose (Katrina Pierson), Lynne Patton, Jason Miller and the Trump campaign... So yes, I shared it, but I'm not trolling them," she explained. "I just want them to know that everything you see in 'Unhinged' that's quoted can be verified as documented and corroborated." When Noah asked if she ever worries about herself and her safety due to the position she's in, she gave a clear, confident response. "Trevor, I would say this, if you see me in a fight with a bear, pray for the bear," she said. Watch the full interview in the clip above. More:Penn Jillette says he knows Trump tapes exist, because 'I was in the room' More:Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, Trevor Noah drag Trump, Omarosa over firing feud More:Omarosa reveals she also taped post-firing conversation with President Trump<doc-sep>If nothing else, Omarosa Manigault Newman is entertaining. Dressed like the the freshest deaconess or Pope in all the land, the former assistant to President Trump played on the skills she learned as a pioneering reality television star first for her interview on Meet The Press and then on the TODAY show. There to promote her new book, "Unhinged: An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House," Newman played the role of disillusioned supporter who has finally seen the light after a great “betrayal.” At several points during the interview, I had the urge to shout, Watch out, Meryl! Omarosa is on your neck, sis! To hear Manigault Newman tell it, while she acknowledges that she is "complicit" in deceiving the American people about the capabilities of its current president, she claims that her decision to serve in the Trump administration was not an act of self-interest, but a selfless desire to advocate for the Black community. To her, “People are making decisions for us without us,” and thus her position as the only Black person in the room was of grave significance. Watching, I had to pause for a laugh break. But now, suddenly, Manigault Newman understands that it doesn’t matter if you’re in the room when the room consists of people who don’t truly see you to begin with. Now, she gets that Trump uses race “to stir up the base.” Indeed, now, she believes that Trump is racist. One would think a lengthy history of racism in his commentary and business practices might have confirmed Trump's antipathy towards Black people long ago to any Black person breathing and paying attention, but better late than never. Apparently, it took Manigault Newman to listen to some tape in which Trump allegedly says “n*****” to confirm what was obvious to the rest of us. (Though, in the book, she actually says she only heard that such a tape existed; she told Meet The Press anchor Chuck Todd that she finally heard it for herself after who book went to press.) “But when he talks that way, the way he did on this tape, it confirmed that he is truly a racist,” Newman explained in the interview. Manigault Newman seems to want to remake herself from the woman who was betrayed by a mentor and friend to one who decided to save the nation from the madness she once helped cover up. It’s a lovely a little fable, but I refuse to fall for it. I appreciated her performances with Chuck Todd and Savannah Guthrie, but they very much felt like performances. So, whatever, Omarosa: I prefer my fairy tales with singing crabs, like in "The Little Mermaid." I was also amused by the revelation that Manigault Newman apparently recorded White House Chief of Staff John Kelly in The Situation Room. What kind of reality TV hell has that house become? (And actually, it's more than a bit concerning a recording device can be snuck into such a place.) That said, she is correct in her assertion that, if she hadn’t recorded Kelly, the media narrative of her setting off White House alarms in an effort to get to Trump would have stuck with her. Kelly wanted to humiliate her — and his treatment of Black women has a curious pattern. Nevertheless, spare me. I am inclined to agree with writers like Jelani Cobb, who noted in the New Yorker: “Her realization about Trump’s outlook appears to have emerged at some point during her book deal. That’s not a gradual awakening, it’s a glacial, self-interested one.” She knew who Trump was long ago and she made the choice to work with him anyway. This is the same woman who said at a rally, “When I say ‘Trump train,’ I wanna hear y’all say ‘Choo-choo.’” Then, they pushed her off of the train and now she wants the resistance to keep her company and the Black community to welcome her back with open arms. No. Again, Omarosa Manigault Newman is entertaining. I thought she looked amazing in that white ensemble on Sunday — it gave me saved-Christian-who-has-been-wronged chic. I am tickled that she is on Meet The Press and using language like “have receipts” to describe recording Kelly and “a unicorn jumping over rainbows” to describe Sean Spicer talking about Trump. And I give thanks for that tip about ex-staffers being offered $15,000 a month to sign an NDA and cash their checks in silence. In terms of television, it was excellent. As for her reinvention: Hardy har. Newman thinks “the people who want to judge should read the book first,” but there is no need. She may find Trump to be a “con” but it often takes one to know one — and whether she has clocked this or not, we can see through her just as easily as we do him. Michael Arceneaux is the author of the book "I Can't Date Jesus" (July 2018, Atria Books).<doc-sep>Omarosa Manigault Newman, the former "Apprentice" contestant who became a White House aide, has provided an audio recording that she says is from 2017 and on which President Donald Trump expresses surprise that she'd been fired from his administration. The tape, which was played exclusively Monday on the "Today" show and drew a harsh attack from Trump on Manigault Newman just hours later, appears to show the president having no idea that she had been dismissed by his chief of staff, John Kelly. "Omarosa? Omarosa what's going on? I just saw on the news that you're thinking about leaving? What happened?" Trump is heard saying on the tape, which Manigault Newman said was made when the president call her one day after her termination in December last year. She responds, "General Kelly came to me and said that you guys wanted me to leave." "Nobody even told me about it," Trump replies. Manigault Newman then says, "Wow," before Trump reiterates his shock. "You know they run a big operation, but I didn't know it,” Trump is heard saying on the tape. "I didn't know that. Goddamn it. I don't love you leaving at all." NBC News does not know what was said before or after that exchange. Manigault Newman, in an interview later Monday on MSNBC's "Velshi & Ruhle," said she "absolutely" had more tapes in her possession but hadn't decided yet whether she would release them publicly. Trump, for his part, responded to her latest claims in a trio of tweets Monday morning ripping her as "wacky" and "vicious but not smart" and saying "people in the White House hated her." He called her "nasty," claimed she constantly missed work and said Kelly had told him she was a "loser" and "nothing but problems." "She never made it, never will," he said. Trump also said, "While I know it's 'not presidential' to take on a lowlife like Omarosa, and while I would rather not be doing so, this is a modern day form of communication." Wacky Omarosa, who got fired 3 times on the Apprentice, now got fired for the last time. She never made it, never will. She begged me for a job, tears in her eyes, I said Ok. People in the White House hated her. She was vicious, but not smart. I would rarely see her but heard.... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 13, 2018 ...really bad things. Nasty to people & would constantly miss meetings & work. When Gen. Kelly came on board he told me she was a loser & nothing but problems. I told him to try working it out, if possible, because she only said GREAT things about me - until she got fired! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 13, 2018 While I know it’s “not presidential” to take on a lowlife like Omarosa, and while I would rather not be doing so, this is a modern day form of communication and I know the Fake News Media will be working overtime to make even Wacky Omarosa look legitimate as possible. Sorry! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 13, 2018 Manigault Newman, responding to Trump's tweets, said on "Velshi & Ruhle" that it was "sad, with all the things going on in the country" that Trump "would take time out to insult me and my intelligence." "This is his pattern with African-Americans," she said. "He doesn't know how to control himself." Following Manigault Newman's interview on MSNBC, Trump tweeted that "Wacky Omarosa already has a fully signed Non-Disclosure Agreement!" Newman, however, wrote in her book, "Unhinged: An Insider's Account of the Trump White House," that she had not signed a non-disclosure agreement. She asserted in the book that within 24 hours of her departure, Lara Trump, the president's daughter-in-law, emailed her a contract to work on the president's re-election campaign for $15,000 per month, in exchange for signing a nondisclosure agreement that was "as harsh and restrictive as any I'd seen in all my years of television." Manigault Newman wrote that she turned down the offer. She provided what she said were copies of those agreements to NBC's "Meet the Press." Wacky Omarosa already has a fully signed Non-Disclosure Agreement! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 13, 2018 Earlier on Monday, in a contentious interview on "Today," after the audio recording was played, Manigault Newman accused Trump of lying to the American people and said he "doesn't even know what’s happening in his White House." "General Kelly, John Kelly is running this White House and Donald Trump has no clue what's going on," she said. "He's being puppetted, and that's very dangerous for this nation." Manigault Newman said she had known Trump "to be an entertainer — but I never thought he'd lie to the country." Manigault Newman's disclosure of the recording came the day after she told NBC's “Meet the Press,” in an exclusive interview, that she has personally heard a tape of Trump using the N-word during filming for "The Apprentice” — a revelation she says "confirmed that he is truly a racist." Manigault Newman made the charge days before the release on Tuesday of her new book, in which she described hearing about the tape but not hearing it herself. She said Sunday that she personally listened to it after her book had gone to press. On Monday, she said there were "multiple tapes" but that the one she had described previously was an audio tape that was "about three minutes" long. On it, Trump "was talking about some African-Americans in the production during the course of 'The Apprentice.'" Manigault Newman said Sunday she had "heard for two years that it existed, and once I heard it for myself, it was confirmed, what I feared the most: That Donald Trump is a con and has been masquerading as someone who is actually open to engaging with diverse communities." Manigault Newman also provided "Meet the Press" with an audio recording she said was made in 2017 when Kelly fired her. In it, Kelly argued that there have been "significant integrity issues" that prompted him to fire her. She claimed the recording was made when Kelly took her into the Situation Room, a specially secure room where the president and his top aides address major national security crises, and where personal cellphones are not allowed. When asked Monday on "Today," how she managed to tape Kelly inside such a secure area, Manigault Newman replied, "I'll just leave that to your imagination." NBC News and other outlets reported at the time that Manigault Newman had been escorted out of the White House after she tried to enter the presidential residence in response to hearing she'd been fired.<doc-sep>
Omarosa Manigault Newman continued to drag Donald Trump and the White House on The Daily Show in a very measured interview with Trevor Noah. During her appearance on The Daily Show she, of course, continued her promotional blitz for her book Unhinged but Noah was fascinated with how she has managed to “out-Trump Trump” since she left the White House. She talked about how she regrets being “totally complicit” while working at the White House and how they “lie to the American people every single day.” “Every day he dismantles the dignity of that office,” she said of Trump. But the real meat of the interview was why she released those secret tapes of her getting fired by John Kelly, and the discussion of the use of the N-word. Omarosa, at the request of a team of lawyers, was being very careful about what she told Noah because Trump has threatened her with court action. When it boiled down to it, she said she made the recordings because no one would have believed what was going on in the White House if she hadn’t. She said what many have suspected already: “This White House has a credibility issue.” “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 going on in the White House,” she said about the tapes. “I knew I needed to document that corruption otherwise people would not take it seriously.” Noah asked if there was a strategy to her releasing the tapes saying that it’s like she is “releasing singles and we are waiting for the album.” She said there was no strategy to releasing the tapes, but when Katrina Pierson said the N-word conversation never happened, she decided to share it to prove her wrong. Even so, Omarosa said that she was not “trolling” the White House. Omarosa added, “Everything that you see in Unhinged that’s quoted can be verified as documented and corroborated.” When asked if she is worried about her safety because of the tapes and her tell-all book, she said: “If you see me in a fight with a bear…pray for the bear.”