Omarosa endorses Kamala Harris because of Trump as president

Omarosa Manigault Newman remains in the political arena.

The White House official – who served as communications director for the Office of Public Liaison under Donald Trump in 2017 and also served in the Clinton administration – rose to fame as one of Trump’s favorite contestants on “The Apprentice.” After her time on the first season of the 2004 reality show, she returned for two different episodes of ‘The Celebrity Apprentice’.

But in her 2018 memoir “Unhinged,” Manigault-Newman went after Trump (she allegedly made a secret recording of Chief of Staff Jon Kelly firing her from the White House), describing the then-president as a racist and cognitively impaired. . A lengthy lawsuit, in which Trump’s presidential campaign alleged that Manigault Newman violated an NDA, was settled in Manigault Newman’s favor in 2022.

Now, talking to VarietyManigault Newman – currently a law student at Southern University Law Center – talks about her thoughts on the 2024 campaign, Trump’s treatment of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, and offers her support for the first time in this year’s presidential election.

In your memoir, you described how Donald Trump underwent cognitive changes during his presidency. Looking at the campaign from a distance, do you think he’s still losing a step?

Absolute. For anyone who observes Donald Trump and even takes a moment to compare between 2016 and now, what is clear from what is happening with Donald is that he has a limited vocabulary. He wanders and has a tendency to create things out of thin air.

And yet he appears to remain Teflon, at least to some core voters who seem impervious to breaking with him. What’s your theory about his ardent fans?

I wouldn’t call losing an election Teflon. Joe Biden is the president. Donald Trump has been defeated before, and I think this is what gets on his nerves the most [next] Defeat can come at the hands of a woman of color. He reserves his most vicious attacks for women of color. Losing to a woman of color would be devastating to his ego.

What did you think of him questioning Kamala Harris’ racial identity?

I thought this was excessive – especially since Donald has not been honest and forthright about his heritage in the past. He was ashamed of his German origins, so in ‘The Art of the Deal’ he made up a story that his family came from Sweden.

One phenomenon you described in your book was the sense of guardrails that kept Trump, during his time as president, from acting on his worst impulses. In a hypothetical second term, it certainly seems like he will be less held back by the John Kellys of the world. Do you have any insight into that?

That is absolutely the case. One of the reasons Mike Pence was selected [as Trump’s 2016 running mate] is that people believed Pence would be a calming factor. I remember much of the discussion was about whether the establishment could align Donald Trump and get him to embrace the conservatives’ theology. Instead, Donald Trump hijacked the party and pushed out individuals who could modulate his behavior. He has made it explicit that if he wins again, he will empower the most extreme individuals around him.

On a more personal note, his legal team has fiercely pursued you over the years, claiming that you violated a non-disclosure agreement. Even as an arbitrator at the court rewarded you $1.3 million in legal fees in 2022. Are you afraid of reprisals from Trump if he becomes president again?

We’ve defeated him in court before. We would do it again. I’m not intimidated by him. Donald Trump sued me while he was in the Oval Office. I don’t think it’s going to get any worse, right? And we came out on top. He has made it clear that he would retaliate against anyone who opposes his MAGA theology. But I’m no longer intimidated by Donald Trump. At the time it was very intimidating because he was one of the most powerful individuals in the world. Now that we’ve taken on them and won, I’m not afraid of that anymore. And now that people see the pattern, we can resist it more fiercely than before.

Before ‘The Apprentice’ you worked in a Democratic government; then you worked in a Republican administration. Do you miss working in the political arena in general?

It’s time for a younger generation. Politics is a game for young women. I hope Kamala Harris will usher in a new generation of young political leaders. If she wins – if she wins – I hope she will usher in new energy. Young women should be given the opportunity to serve at the highest levels of government. I’ve had the chance to do it twice, which I think is more than enough in anyone’s life. I went into the White House in my twenties – that’s when I started [Al] Gore, and I ended up on the presidential staff with Bill Clinton, and then to be able to return with Donald – I think more than 20 years in Washington is enough.

Now I am still involved in politics. I do political commentary for Sky News, and I’ll be anchoring their bureau for election night from Washington. You see me contributing to the political conversation. I will always maintain that position. I will always ensure that I contribute to the dialogue. But it’s time for new blood, and I’m excited about the future of this country.

You live in Baton Rouge as a law student pursuing your J.D. –

JD MBA!

Wow. Is the goal to practice law?

I will certainly act as a trial attorney on the plaintiff’s side. I want to make sure I have an impact on social justice. I did it during COVID – I took the LSAT and got into all my dream schools. I did my last three semesters in person, which was fantastic. So absolutely, I’m going to practice. You’ll see me in major mass tort cases. I want to be one of the most effective trial lawyers in the country.

Are you still in touch with your colleagues from the Trump White House, and when you speak privately, are they as shocked as you are?

Please clarify what you mean by ‘scandalized as I am’.

It appears from your book and everything you say that you portray Trump in a very negative light. And I wonder if, when you speak to someone from that time in your professional life, you share your negative impression of how he governed and how he might govern again.

Let me put this in context for you. I came to Washington in 1996, so the relationships I built in Washington didn’t start or stop with Donald Trump. Those relationships are strong ties that I maintain, and so I have strong relationships in every administration – Bush, Clinton, Obama, Trump, soon to be Harris, in all of them. My resources, my network, and my connections allow me to gain insight into the inner workings of campaigns, devices, and organizations that most people wouldn’t have. Do I stay in touch? It’s not about keeping in touch. If you want to survive in Washington, you are only as strong as your connections.

Given these connections, I think it’s important that in this conversation you seem optimistic about the potential that Kamala Harris could win.

For me, it’s an important milestone on a very personal level, and it would be a huge, seismic movement for little girls and little black boys. This is important. This is important. I’m sitting in Washington at the anchor desk, praying we’ll see history being made. But to get so close is still so important. I believe the nation will elect the leader they need at this time, and I believe that leader is Vice President Kamala Harris.

As a kind of closing thought, given the time you spent close to Trump, I wonder if you ever felt like there was a loss of potential. He’s clearly been a great communicator and connected with people, but he’s taken that connection toward an unusually negative kind of politics.

I thought about that very deeply when I wrote “Unhinged,” about how Donald Trump squandered the greatest opportunity he had in his life to be a consistent leader, to shape the direction of our nation and bring it into the towards something positive. He chose to go to the dark side. That’s why I have no reservations — I think I’m saying this for the first time — that I 100 percent support Kamala Harris for president.